The fucose-containing sulfated polysaccharides (syn. fucoidans) from brown algae exhibit a wide range of bioactivities and are therefore considered promising candidates for health-supporting and medical applications. During the past three decades, research on isolation, molecular characterization, and screening of in vitro and in vivo pharmacological activities has significantly increased. Until now, however, fucoidans are only used as ingredients in cosmetics and food supplements, especially due to the proclaimed antioxidant activities of fucoidan. One obstacle to medical applications is the usually high molecular mass of native fucoidans, as it is associated with unfavorable biopharmaceutical properties and possibly undesired effects. Therefore, it seems reasonable to develop fucoidan derivatives with reduced size. So far, in this study, fucoidan from Fucus vesiculosus was gradually degraded from M_w 38.2 down to 4.9 kDa without concomitant desulfation. Compared to hydrothermal treatment, the degradation with H₂O₂ showed to be more efficient and additionally eliminated the antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of the genuine fucoidan. This confirmed our previous hypothesis that rather co-extracted compounds like terpenoids and polyphenols than the fucoidan itself exhibit these effects.

来自褐藻的含岩藻糖的硫酸化多糖（合岩藻依聚糖）具有广泛的生物活性，因此被认为在健康和医疗应用方面很有希望。在过去的三十年中，有关分离，分子表征以及体外和体内药理活性筛选的研究已大大增加。然而，到目前为止，岩藻依聚糖仅用作化妆品和食品补充剂中的成分，特别是由于岩藻依聚糖具有公认的抗氧化活性。医学应用的一个障碍是天然岩藻依聚糖的通常高分子量，因为它与不利的生物药物特性和可能的​​不良作用有关。因此，开发尺寸减小的岩藻依聚糖衍生物似乎是合理的。到目前为止，在这项研究中，墨角藻从M _w 38.2逐渐降解至4.9 kDa，而没有伴随的脱硫。与水热处理相比，H ₂ O ₂的降解更有效，并且还消除了真正的岩藻依聚糖的抗氧化和抗增殖活性。这证实了我们先前的假设，即与类岩藻依聚糖本身相比，共萃取的化合物（如萜类化合物和多酚）表现出这些作用。