Fucoidan

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Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide (MW: average 20,000) found mainly in various species of brown seaweed such as kombu, wakame, mozuku, and hijiki (variant forms of fucoidan have also been found in animal species, including the sea cucumber). Substantial pharmaceutical research has been done on fucoidan, focusing primarily on two distinct forms: F-fucoidan, which is >95% composed of sulfated esters of fucose, and U-fucoidan, which is approximately 20% glucuronic acid. As a consequence of this research, U-fucoidan and F-fucoidan are now being marketed as a nutraceutical, a supposed "miracle drug", and a food supplement.^[1]

Researchers began studying fucoidan around 1970, and since that time fucoidan has been cited in approximately 700 studies published in the National Library of Medicine's database. The overall findings of this large body of research, coupled with anecdotal evidence provided by a long history of use of fucoidan-bearing seaweed in areas such as Japan, Hawaii and Tonga, indicate that fucoidan demonstrates great potential as a safe nutritional answer for a wide variety of health complaints.

A study ^[2] released in 2005 by Japanese researchers have indicated that F-fucoidan can induce apoptosis in human lymphoma cell lines; as well, French researchers showed in 2002 ^[3] that F-fucoidan can inhibit hyperplasia in rabbits.

[edit] References

^ "Discovered that the polysaccharide F-fucoidan contained in the seaweed kombu can induce the production of HGF (Hepatocyte Growth Factor) in vivo experiment", Biotechnology Research Laboratories of Takara, 15 July 1999.
^ Aisa Y; Miyakawa Y; Nakazato T; Shibata H; Saito K; Ikeda Y; Kizaki M (2005 Jan). "Fucoidan induces apoptosis of human HS-sultan cells accompanied by activation of caspase-3 and down-regulation of ERK pathways". American Journal of Hematology 78 (1): 7–14. PMID 15609279 DOI:10.1002/ajh.20182.
^ Jean-François Deux; Anne Meddahi-Pellé; Alain F. Le Blanche; Laurent J. Feldman; Sylvia Colliec-Jouault; Françoise Brée; Frank Boudghène; Jean-Baptiste Michel; Didier Letourneur (2002). "Low Molecular Weight Fucoidan Prevents Neointimal Hyperplasia in Rabbit Iliac Artery In-Stent Restenosis Model" (PDF). Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology 22: 1604. DOI:doi:10.1161/01.ATV.0000032034.91020.0A.