Fate of water-soluble polysaccharides in dried chords filum a brown alga during water washing

A brown alga Church filum (L.) Lam. called tsuru-mo in Japanese is harvested and consumed only in a few towns that lie on the coast of the Japan Sea. In Wajima, Ishikawa, Japan, the alga was dried under the sun and stored for 1 year before being sold in retail shops. The dried product of C., filum was washed and rubbed well with plenty of water five to 10 times before cooking. The recovery of crude fucoidan and alginate from dried product was 12 and 16% (w/w), respectively. Molecular ratio of galactose/fucose in the crude fucoidan was lower than 0.1. The ratio of SO4/fucose was about 1.0. Most of the crude fucoidan was lost by washing with 50 volumes of water five times, though half of the crude alginate remained in the washed product. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.