Elsevier

Fitoterapia

Volume 83, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 6-12
Fitoterapia

Review
Enzyme-assistant extraction (EAE) of bioactive components: A useful approach for recovery of industrially important metabolites from seaweeds: A review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fitote.2011.10.016 Get rights and content

Abstract

Over the years, the biological activities of seaweeds could have gained a considerable research interest because of their specific functional compounds, which may not be available in land plants. Thus, efforts at discovery of novel metabolites from seaweeds over the past years have yielded a considerable amount of new active compounds. In addition, studies about the extraction of active compounds from natural products have attracted special attention in the last recent years. Potent biologically active compounds of seaweeds have been demonstrated to play a significant role in prevention of certain degenerative diseases such as cancer, inflammation, arthritis, diabetes and hypertension. Therefore, seaweed derived active components, whose immense biochemical diversity looks like to become a rich source of novel chemical entities for the use as functional ingredients in many industrial applications such as functional foods, pharmaceuticals and cosmeceuticals. Thus, the interest in the extraction of active compounds from seaweeds is obvious. However, the physical and chemical barriers of the plant material become the key drawbacks of such extraction process. Therefore, enhanced release and recovery of active compounds attached to the cells have been addressed. Taken together, the aim of this communication is to discuss the potential use of enzyme treatment as a tool to improve the extraction efficiency of bioactive compounds from seaweeds.

Introduction

Seaweeds are potentially excellent sources of highly bioactive secondary metabolites that could represent useful leads in the development of new functional ingredients [1]. They are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms. Macroalgae (seaweeds) can be classified into three broad groups as red algae, brown algae and green algae, based on their pigmentation [2]. These naturally growing seaweeds are an important source of food, especially in Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea [3], [4]. In addition, many reports have been published regarding isolated compounds from seaweeds with various biological activities, demonstrating their ability to produce important metabolites unlike those found in terrestrial species [5].

Seaweeds have been recognized to provide chemically and functionally novel metabolites. Those secondary metabolites synthesized by seaweeds demonstrate a broad spectrum of bioactivity including antioxidant, antiinflammatory, anticancer, antidiabetic and anti HIV activity [6]. Therefore, seaweeds can be considered as very interesting natural sources containing new compounds with numerous biological activities that could be used as functional ingredients in many industrial applications such as functional food, pharmaceutical and functional cosmetic industries [7]. Thus, the investigation of seaweed derived chemical compounds, a different source of natural products, has proven to be a promising area of functional ingredient study. An expanding market for natural products is a fact and is facing a new challenge of growing algae on a large-scale without harming any further the marine environment [5].

Various extractants were used to release soluble compounds from the algal matrix. The basic procedure for large-scale samples is to extract the algal powder with water or organic solvents. Under these conditions, the extraction yield varies from 8% to 30% of the algal dry yield [8]. The presence of various polysaccharides of large quantities in the cell wall strongly reduced the extraction efficiency during application of classical extraction methods. However, recently, new kinds of extraction techniques appeared, such as enzymolysis and microwave-assisted extraction. The former has impressive effects with characteristics of high catalytic efficiency, high specificity, mild reactive conditions and preserving the original efficacy of active compounds to the maximum [9]. The latter method also has many advantages, such as shorter time, less solvent, higher extraction rate and better products with lower cost [10], [11]. In addition to the studies of the soluble compounds, there are compounds attached to the cell wall (cell-wall-bound compounds) which cannot be easily extracted using typical extraction methods with aqueous solvents. Further, this might limit the study and potential industrial applications of seaweed derived active components. Interestingly, enzymatic digestion of algae gains high bioactive yield and shows enhanced biological activity in comparison with water and organic extract counterparts [12]. In this point this review is a discussion about the use of enzyme-assistant or the enzyme-enhanced extraction as an alternative method to improve the recovery of industrially useful compounds from seaweeds.

Section snippets

Enzymatic degradation of algal cell walls and extraction of bioactive components

The discovery of new chemical entities has become the modern focus of much natural product works [13]. Recent trends in active compound study from natural sources have shown that seaweeds are promising materials to discover novel biologically active compounds. In addition, the search for bioactive compounds from seaweeds has been a very attractive research area and a number of recent research communications dealt with bioactive compounds isolated from them [6]. Extraction is the most important

Importance of enzyme treatment prior to extraction of bioactive compounds

This promising biotechnological procedure has been widely used to improve the extraction efficiency of bioactive components from land plants. In contrast, the successful use of this technique to enhance the recovery of polyphenols from citrus peel [9], grape skin [18], apple skin [19], unripe apples [20], black currant [21] and Ginkgo biloba leaves [22] has been reported. In addition, the application of the enzyme-assistant extraction (EAE) method on seaweed materials was also reported (Table 1

Selection of appropriate enzymes and optimum extraction conditions

Enzymes play a critical role in many commercial applications. They are biological catalysts. Therefore, the enzymatic hydrolysis of substances depends on several physicochemical factors. Selection of appropriate hydrolytic enzyme or optimal mixture of enzymes is vital to obtain expected output. Addressing the potency issue first has to select the suitable enzyme to digest specific polymer bonds present in the intact seaweed materials. After selection of the suitable enzymes various process

Possible bioactive components from seaweeds

Seaweeds represent a valuable source of novel bioactive compounds. Over the years many active components have been isolated from seaweeds with diverse chemical nature.

Biological activities of enzyme-assistant extracts from seaweeds

Application of EAE for recovery of industrially important bioactive components from seaweeds is a promising technique. The potential antioxidant properties of enzymatic extracts from seven species of brown seaweeds were reported by Heo et al. [12]. Four different ROS scavenging assays were used to evaluate the antioxidant potentials. In this study they have employed commercially available five different carbohydrate degrading enzymes and five proteases. According to their results, the enzyme

Conclusion

Seaweeds represent a valuable source of new compounds. The biochemical diversity of seaweeds becomes a rich source of novel chemical entities for the discovery of more effective functional metabolites. Bioactive compounds discussed here are obtained from different seaweeds exhibiting different chemical structures and displaying a large variety of biological effects on specific targets. On the other hand, these components seem to be very useful and promising for biological research to clarify

References (68)

  • J.M. Betz et al.

    Accuracy, precision, and reliability of chemical measurements in natural products research

    Fitoterapia

    (2011)
  • B. Yang et al.

    Extraction and pharmacological properties of bioactive compounds from longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) fruit. A review

    Food Res Int

    (2011)
  • M. Pinelo et al.

    Upgrading of grape skins: significance of plant cell-wall structural components and extraction techniques for phenol release

    Trends Food Sci Technol

    (2006)
  • M. Pinelo et al.

    Selective release of phenols from apple skin

    Sep Purif Technol

    (2008)
  • S. Chen et al.

    Enzyme-assisted extraction of flavonoids from Ginkgo biloba leaves: improvement effect of flavonol transglycosylation catalyzed by Penicillium decumbens cellulose

    Enzyme Microb Technol

    (2011)
  • J.Y. Je et al.

    Antioxidant and antihypertensive hydrolysates produced from tuna liver by enzymatic hydrolysis

    Food Res Int

    (2009)
  • S.J. Heo et al.

    Effect of phlorotannins isolated from Ecklonia cava on melanogenesis and their protective effect against photo-oxidative stress induced by UV-B radiation

    Toxicol In Vitro

    (2009)
  • K.A. Kang et al.

    Eckol isolated from Ecklonia cava attenuates oxidative stress induced cell damage in lung fibroblast cells

    FEBS Lett

    (2005)
  • Y. Li et al.

    Chemical components and its antioxidant properties in vitro: an edible marine brown alga, Ecklonia cava

    Bioorg Med Chem

    (2009)
  • B. Ryu et al.

    Exhibitory effects of compounds from brown alga Ecklonia cava on the human osteoblasts

    Abstr J Biotechnol

    (2008)
  • Q.T. Le et al.

    Inhibitory effects of polyphenols isolated from marine alga Ecklonia cava on histamine release

    Process Biochem

    (2009)
  • M.M. Kim et al.

    Phlorotannins in Ecklonia cava extract inhibit matrix metalloproteinase activity

    Life Sci

    (2006)
  • C.S. Kong et al.

    Induction of apoptosis by phloroglucinol derivative from Ecklonia cava in MCF-7 human breast cancer cell

    Food Chem Toxicol

    (2009)
  • K.A. Kang et al.

    Triphlorethol-A induces heme oxygenase-1 via activation of ERK and NF-E2 related factor 2 transcription factor

    FEBS Lett

    (2007)
  • L.S. Costa et al.

    Biological activities of sulfated polysaccharides from tropical seaweeds

    Biomed Pharmacother

    (2010)
  • K.M. Kim et al.

    Fucoxanthin induces apoptosis in human leukemia HL-60 cells through a ROS-mediated Bcl-xL pathway

    Toxicol In Vitro

    (2010)
  • Y.F. Shang et al.

    Pressurized liquid method for fucoxanthin extraction from E. bicyclis (Kjellman) setchell

    J Biosci Bioeng

    (2011)
  • S. Roufik et al.

    In vitro digestibility of bioactive peptides derived from bovine β-lactoglobulin

    Int Dairy J

    (2006)
  • A. Aneiros et al.

    Bioactive peptides from marine sources: pharmacological properties and isolation procedures

    J Chromatogr B

    (2004)
  • T. Wang et al.

    Enzyme-enhanced extraction of antioxidant ingredients from red algae Palmaria palmate

    LWT- Food Sci Technol

    (2010)
  • K.N. Kim et al.

    Protective effect of Ecklonia cava enzymatic extracts on hydrogen peroxide-induced cell damage

    Process Biochem

    (2006)
  • S.K. Kim et al.

    Effect of Ecklonia cava ethanolic extracts on airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation in a murine asthma model: role of suppressor of cytokine signaling

    Biomed Pharmacother

    (2008)
  • S.Y. Shim et al.

    Ecklonia cava extract suppresses the high-affinity IgE receptor, FcRIε expression

    Food Chem Toxicol

    (2009)
  • S.M. Kang et al.

    Anti-inflammatory activity of polysaccharide purified from AMG-assistant extract of Ecklonia cava in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 macrophages

    Carbohydr Polym

    (2011)
  • Cited by (265)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text