Evaluation of relationship between molecular weight and antioxidant properties of hydrolyzed fucoidan from brown seaweed Nizamuddinia zanardinii

Polysaccharides possess diverse biological properties, mostly owed to their structural complexity and molecular heterogeneity, that could be improved through engineering methods and application of structural modifications. The objective of the present study was the assessment of antioxidant properties of hydrolyzed fucoidan from seaweed Nizamuddinia zanardinii and the correlation of molecular weight with biological function. After the removal of pigments and low molecular weight compounds, crude extracted polysaccharide was hydrolyzed at 100 C for 10, 20, 40 and 60 minutes using 0.01N HCl. The average molecular weight of crude fucoidan 1254.4 × 103 g/mol and for hydrolysates FH10, FH20, FH40 and FH60 was 974.5, 891.8, 806.5 and 705.5 × 103 g/mol, respectively. With the decrease of molecular weight, hydrolysates, compared with the crude fucoidan, exerted considerable DPPH (61.27-84.54%) and ABTS (40.1-88.5%) radical scavenging and Fe3+ reducing power (0.49-0.81 Abs) activities. Among different samples, hydrolysate FH20 showed the greatest capacity for DPPH radical scavenging activity (70.45-84.54%) and Fe3+ reducing power (0.49-0.81 Abs). Overall, the results of the current study showed that hydrolysis and reduction of molecular weight significantly improved the antioxidant activities of the fucoidan while time did not result any significant differences in antioxidant properties of hydrolysates which could be due to alterations in functional groups. Hence, fucoidan isolated from the examined species could be utilized as antioxidant agents in forms of native or hydrolysates.