Pathway of sodium alginate synthesis from marine brown algae, Sargassum wightii from Sri Lanka

Alginates are natural polysaccharides that are extracted from brown seaweed varieties and it is widely used for their rheological properties. The main step in the extraction protocol of sodium alginate is alkaline extraction. Sodium alginate was produced by dipping the seaweed in 1% formaldehyde and 2.5% of sodium carbonate solution and properties were studied following the standard methods. The amount of sodium alginate yield was 31.7% in Sargassum wightii. The moisture content and the ash content were recorded at 16.82% and 5.20%, respectively. The viscosity and the gel strength were noted as 40 vcP, 4.54 x 10(-2) kN with 0.1 M CaCl2 and 6.86 x 10(-2) kN with 0.2 M CaCl2 respectively. This study of the extraction method and its properties reveal that Sargassum wightii brown seaweed species have a high affinity to extract the alginate.