Sulfated galactans polysaccharides

A group of seaweed extracts, c. is constituted from sulfated galactan polysaccharides of different repeating units, such as D-galactose-sulfate and 3,6-anhydro-D-galactose-sulfate. 

Marine sulfated polysaccharides (MSPs), such as sulfated fucans (SFs), sulfated galactans (SGs), and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) isolated from invertebrate animals, are highly anionic polysaccharides capable of interacting with certain cationic proteins, such as... 

Melo, F. R., Pereira, M. S., Foguel, D., and Mourao, P. A. (2004). Antithrombin-mediated anticoagulant activity of sulfated polysaccharides Different mechanisms for heparin and sulfated galactans. J. Biol. Chem. 279, 20824—20835. 

In addition to valuable physicochemical properties, sulfated polysaccharides of the red algae are promising biologically active polymers, and many structural works already cited aimed at isolation and characterization of new compounds having potential medical application. The most important types of biological activity of sulfated galactans are listed briefly in this section. 

Some sulfated galactans, or products of their partial depolymerization, exhibit antioxidant activity.684,685 The chemistry of radical scavenging effects is not very clear, especially taking into account the fact that several products of chemical modifications of natural polysaccharides, such as oversulfated, phosphorylated, acety-lated and phthaloylated derivatives, may demonstrate stronger antioxidant activity than the raw material.685-688... 

A. I. Usov and M. Ya. Elashvili, Polysaccharides of algae. 44. Investigation of sulfated galactan from Laurencia nipponica Yamada (Rhodophyta, Rhodomelaceae) using partial reductive hydrolysis, Bot. Mar., 34 (1991) 553-560. 

A. I. Usov and V. V. Barbakadze, Polysaccharides of algae. 27. Partial acetolysis of the sulfated galactan from the red seaweed Grateloupia divaricata Okam, Sow J. Bioorg. Chem., 4 (1978) 814-820(English translation from Bioorg. Khim., 4 (1978) 1107-1115). 

There are many studies involving and C-NMR spectroscopy of carrageenans, a family of polysaccharides with the structure of linear sulfated galactans. They are extracted from certain species of red seaweed and have been used for a long time as natural texturing ingredients in the food industry. 

The red seaweed Porphyra umbilicalis, which is widely used as a food, contains a predominantly / -d-(i -> 4)-linked mannan along with other polysaccharides (sulfated galactans). The mannan appears to have a branched chain structure with one branch point for every 12 D-mannose residues. 

A highly ramified pyruvylated sulfated galactan was isolated from a Japanese Codium fragile. This sulfated polysaccharide is active against herpes simplex type II and stimulates macrophage (Lee et al, 2010). 

---