Purification and Anticoagulant Activity of a Fucoidan from Korean Undaria pinnatifida Sporophyll

Abstract

Crude fucoidan was extracted from the sporophyll of Korean Undaria pinnatifida collected at a coastal area of Wando, Korea, mainly by dilute acid extraction, ethanol precipitation, CaCl2 precipitation, with an yield of approxi- mately 3.9% in mass. It was further purified by DEAE-cellulose column chromatography and its chemical composi- tion and in vitro anticoagulant activity was determined. The average molecular mass of the purified fucoidan was estimated about 2.1 × 103 kDa by size-fractionation HPLC and it consisted of neutral sugar (52.34% in mass), uronic acid (26.2%), and sulfate esters (7.4%). From the HPAEC-PAD analysis, the monosaccharide composition of the purified fucoidan was shown to be fucose, galactose, xylose, and mannose, with a molar ratio of 1, 0.2, 0.02, 0.15, respectively, demonstrating that major monosaccharide was fucose (72.3% in mol percentage) and other sugars, xylose (1.5%), galactose (14.6%), and mannose (10.9%) were present as minor component. The results suggested that this fucoidan is a sulfated, U-type fucoidan. The activated partial thrombloplastin time (APTT) assay of the purified fucoidan showed that the purified fucoidan elicited anticoagulant activity in a dose-dependent manner. Five µg of sporophyll fucoidan delayed the blood clotting time up to 5 times than untreated control and also up to 1.5 times than the same amount of the commercial fucoidan, respectively. Although it is preliminary, these results suggest that the fucoidan of Korean Undaria pinnatifida sporophyll would be promising candidates for the development of an anticoagulant. Key