Process and applications of alginate oligosaccharides with emphasis on health beneficial perspectives

Abstract

Alginates are linear polymers comprising 40% of the dry weight of algae possess various applications in food and biomedical industries. Alginate oligosaccharides (AOS), a degradation product of alginate, is now gaining much attention for their beneficial role in food, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. Hence this review was aimed to compile the information on alginate and AOS (prepared from seaweeds) during 1994–2020. As per our knowledge, this is the first review on the potential use of alginate oligosaccharides in different fields. The alginate derivatives are grouped according to their applications. They are involved in the isolation process and show antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antihypertension, anticancer, and immunostimulatory properties. AOS also have significant applications in prebiotics, nutritional supplements, plant growth development and others products.

Keywords:

• Alginate oligosaccharides
• health beneficial effects
• marine foods
• nutrient enhancement
• structure-activity relationship
• synthesis

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Project of Pu'er University (NO. QNRC20-02, NO. 2020GGJS005).