Seaweed contains a variety of bioactive compounds; the most abundant of them are polysaccharides, which have significant biological and chemical importance. Although algal polysaccharides, especially the sulfated polysaccharides, have great potential in the pharmaceutical, medical and cosmeceutical sectors, the large molecular size often limits their industrial applications. The current study aims to determine the bioactivities of degraded red algal polysaccharides by several in vitro experiments. The molecular weight was determined by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), and the structure was confirmed by FTIR and NMR. In comparison to the original furcellaran, the furcellaran with lower molecular weight had higher OH scavenging activities. The reduction in molecular weight of the sulfated polysaccharides resulted in a significant decrease in anticoagulant activities. Tyrosinase inhibition improved 2.5 times for hydrolyzed furcellaran. The alamarBlue assay was used to determine the effects of different Mw of furcellaran, κ-carrageenan and ι-carrageenan on the cell viability of RAW264.7, HDF and HaCaT cell lines. It was found that hydrolyzed κ-carrageenan and ι-carrageenan enhanced cell proliferation and improved wound healing, whereas hydrolyzed furcellaran did not affect cell proliferation in any of the cell lines. Nitric oxide (NO) production decreased sequentially as the Mw of the polysaccharides decreased, which indicates that hydrolyzed κ-Carrageenan, ι-carrageenan and furcellaran have the potential to treat inflammatory disease. These findings suggested that the bioactivities of polysaccharides were highly dependent on their Mw, and the hydrolyzed carrageenans could be used in new drug development as well as cosmeceutical applications.

Carrageenases appear in various species of marine bacteria and are widely used for the degradation of carrageenans, the commercially significant sulphated polysaccharides. The carrageenase production ability of six different Cellulophaga species was identified, with ι-carrageenase being the most abundant carrageenolytic enzyme. C. algicola was the most potent strain, followed by C. fucicola and C. geojensis, whereas C. pacifica was the least effective carrageenase producer among the studied strains. The enzyme production was maximized using the one-factor-at-a-time optimization method. The optimal incubation temperature was identified as 25 °C and the incubation time was set as 48 h for all tested species. The optimal medium composition for Cellulophaga strains was determined as 30 g/L sea salt, 1.4 g/L furcellaran, and 3 g/L yeast extract. An ultrafiltered enzyme extracted from C. algicola had the highest activity at around 40 °C. The optimal pH for enzymatic degradation was determined as 7.8, and the enzyme was fairly stable at temperatures up to 40 °C.

Sound microbiological quality of ice cream should be ensured for being a widely popular dairy food in the world. Present study was conducted to determine the microbiological quality of different ice cream samples available in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Total 3 ice cream samples were collected and processed to detect the microbiological quality as well as drug resistant trait of the isolates through several conventional Kirby Bauer method. All the samples were found to be contaminated with the total viable bacteria and fungi within the range of 1.2×104 cfu/ml to 4.3×106 cfu/ml. The presence of E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus was also observed up to 104 cfu/ml. However, the fecal contamination was totally absent in all the samples. Antibiotic profile of two isolates was measured against 8 commonly used antibiotics and both E.coli and Staphylococcus aureus were found to be resistant against more than one antibiotics. Appropriate hygienic and storage condition should be maintained concerning the health safety of consumers. Stamford Journal of Microbiology, Vol.7(1) 2017: 33-35