Ulvan as A New Trend in Agriculture, Food Processing and Medicine

Abstract

In this work the researcher is looking for natural, new, safe, cheap and available compounds that can be used as antimicrobial and antioxidant in the medical and agricultural fields. A sulfated polysaccharide, Ulvan was extracted from Ulva lactuca and purified by cold or hot water-extraction and ethanol-precipitation with yield = 5:10% (w-w). Its appearance and touch like gel. Characterization of active groups of Ulvan was achieved by FT-IR spectroscopy, its content of sulfate = 3.998% (w-w) was determined by Ion Chromatography (IC), its molecular weight = 532.221 Kilo Daltons was determined by Gel permeation chromatography, its thermal stability was evaluated by DSC-TGA, its viscosity = 18 was determined by viscometer apparatus and its antimicrobial activity was studied against human, plant, animal, fish and poultry pathogens. Ulvan showed antioxidant activity with IC50 = 3.04 mg/ml. Its biological activity as an antioxidant and antimicrobial may be a good indication for the use of Ulvan against various pathogens as a preservative in food processing and cosmetics and as antioxidant and antimicrobial in medicine against human pathogen.