The self-assembly of anionic kappa and iota carrageenan polysaccharides in the presence of NaCl, KCl and CaCl2 is studied by high-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM). A hierarchical supramolecular chirality amplification over various length scales is observed upon the addition of KCl, whereas in the presence of NaCl and CaCl2 the chains undergo solely a coil-helix transition with stiff kap...

Agarans and carrageenans are abundant natural polysaccharides which are obtained on a large scale by water extraction from a variety of red seaweeds. These galactans, in addition to being valuable products for the pharmaceutical and food industries, are low cost starting materials for the preparation of useful and rare carbohydrate-based building blocks whose access by total synthesis is diffic...

Plants interact with the environment by sensing "non-self" molecules called elicitors derived from pathogens or other sources. These molecules bind to specific receptors located in the plasma membrane and trigger defense responses leading to protection against pathogens. In particular, it has been shown that cell wall and storage polysaccharides from green, brown and red seaweeds (marine macroa...

Article history: Received on: 25/09/2012 Revised on: 10/10/2012 Accepted on: 19/10/2012 Available online: 28/10/2012 In addition to their high nutritional value, red algae are of great interest as a source of therapeutic substances. However, despite their abundance on the Lebanese coast red algae have never been studied before. Therefore, we attempted to study among the available biomass one of...

Based on their composition, marine algae, and namely red seaweeds, are good potential functional foods. Intestinal mucosal barrier function refers to the capacity of the intestine to provide adequate containment of luminal microorganisms and molecules. Here, we will first outline the component of seaweeds and will summarize the effects of these on the regulation of mucosal barrier function. Spe...

The endophytic green alga Acrochaete operculata completely colonizes the sporophytes of the red alga Chondrus crispus; however, it does not penetrate beyond the outer cell layers of the gametophytes. Given that the life cycle phases of C. crispus differ in the sulfation pattern of their extracellular matrix carrageenans, we investigated whether carra-geenan fragments could modulate parasite vir...

Eucalyptus globulus (Myrtaceae) originated in Australia and has been introduced in countries with temperate weather in order to obtain wood for cellulose extraction and building purposes. In this work, we analyzed the potential stimulation of growth in height and trunk diameter as well as the content of holo-cellulose, α-cellulose (long cellulose chains), essential oils and polyphenolic compoun...

Carrageenan as an abundant natural carbohydrate could be used as a representative material instead of synthetic polymers. In this work, the degradation of κ-Carrageenan by means of ultrasound irradiation at a frequency of 24 kHz and its combination with heterogeneous Titanium dioxide, followed by a photocatalytic process was investigated. The scission of carrageenan chains induced by a high int...

Marine organisms are constituted by materials with a vast range of properties and characteristics that may justify their potential application within the biomedical field. Moreover, assuring the sustainable exploitation of natural marine resources, the valorisation of residues from marine origin, like those obtained from food processing, constitutes a highly interesting platform for development...