Purification and Anticoagulant Activity of a Fucoidan from Korean Undaria pinnatifida Sporophyll

Crude fucoidan was extracted from the sporophyll of Korean Undaria pinnatifida collected at a coastal area ofWando, Korea, mainly by dilute acid extraction, ethanol precipitation, CaCU Precipitation, with an yield of approxi-mately 3.9% in mass. It was further purified by DEAE-cellulose column chromatography and its chemical composi-don and in vitro anticoagulant activity was determined. The average molecular mass of the purified fucoidan wasestimated about 2.1 x 103 kDa by size-fractionation HPLC and it consisted of neutral sugar (52.34% in mass), uronicacid (26.2%), and sulfate esters (7.4%). From the HPAEC-PAD analysis, the monosaccharide composition of thepurified fucoidan was shown to be fucose, galactose, xylose, and mannose, with a molar ratio of 1, 0.2, 0.02, 0.15,respectively, demonstrating that major monosacd-iande was fucose (72.3% in mol percentage) and other sugars,xylose (1.5%), galactose (14.6%), and mannose (10.9%) were present as minor component. The results suggested thatthis fucoidan is a sulfated, U-type fucoidan. The activated partial thrombloplastin time (APTT) assay of the purifiedfucoidan showed that the purified fucoidan elicited anticoagulant activity in a dose-dependent manner. Five jUg ofsporophyll fucoidan delayed the blood clotting time up to 5 times than untreated control and also up to 1.5 timesthan the same amount of the commercial fucoidan, respectively. Although it is preliminary, these results suggestthat the fucoidan of Korean Undaria vinnatifida sporophyll would be promising candidates for the development ofan anticoaeulant.