• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.129-137
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• 2016

This study aimed to isolate and characterize sulfated polysaccharides (SPs) from Iridaea cordata and evaluate their anticancer activity. SPs of the Antarctic red seaweed were obtained by $CaCl_2$ (SP1) and ethanol precipitations (SP2) following diluted acid extraction at room temperature. Yields of SP1 and SP2 were approximately 14% and 23%, respectively, of the dry weight of red seaweed. The average molecular mass of the SP1 and SP2 was estimated about $1.84{\times}10^3$ and $1.42{\times}10^3kDa$, respectively, by size-fractionation High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). From the High-Performance Anion-Exchange Chromatography-Pulsed Amperometric Detection (HPAEC-PAD) analysis, the main monosaccharide was galactose with glucose and fucose as minor components. The sulfate content of SP2 (40.4%) was slightly higher than that of SP1 (33.8%). The FT-IR spectra also showed characteristic band of carrageenan-like sulfated polysaccharides. Taken together the SPs are thought to be carrageenan-like sulfated galactan. The polysaccharides (SPs) from I. cordata exhibited weak antitumor activity against PC-3 (prostate cancer), HeLa (cervical cancer), and HT-29 (human colon adenocarcinoma). To our knowledge, this is the first data on biological activity of the Antarctic red seaweed I. cordata.