Examination of MAAs extraction conditions

Polysaccharides such as agar and carrageenan are major components of red algae. Because of the high viscosity of the polysaccharides in seaweeds, it was difficult to recover the water-soluble MAAs because they turned into a sludge when extracted with water. Therefore, it was necessary to precipitate the polysaccharides by adding an organic solvent. On the other hand, the polysaccharide xylan of dulse has been found to be less viscous than other red algae polysaccharides. Therefore, we developed an extraction method of MAAs suitable for dulse. When MAAs were extracted under conditions optimized for dulse, six peaks were detected by high-performance liquid chromatography (Figure 3).

Signal intensity (mV)

Time (min)