Summary

Seaweeds, like plants, cannot move freely. Therefore, red algae growing in the intertidal zone are constantly exposed to ultraviolet radiation. Red algae contain mycosporin-like amino acids (MAAs), which act as UV-protectants. As such, they are environmentally friendly compounds, but because of their strong UV-protective properties, they are found only in small amounts in red algae.

In this study, we investigated preparation methods and when samples are best to efficiently obtain MAAs from the low-utilized resource red alga Dulse (Figure 1).