Authors:
Leonel Pereira
1
;
Ana M. Amado
1
;
Paulo J. A. Ribeiro-Claro
2
and
Fred van de Velde
3
Affiliations:
1
FCTUC, University of Coimbra, Portugal
;
2
Universty of Aveiro, Portugal
;
3
Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, Netherlands
Keyword(s):
Polysaccharides, Seaweed, Phycocolloid, Carrageenan, FTIR-ATR, FT-Raman.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Biomedical Engineering
;
Biomedical Instruments and Devices
;
Emerging Technologies
;
Telecommunications
;
Wireless and Mobile Technologies
;
Wireless Information Networks and Systems
Abstract:
The wide industrial application of phycocolloids (e.g. alginates, agar and carrageenans) is based on their particular properties to form gels in aqueous solution. Recently, new spectroscopic techniques have provided more accurate identification of the natural composition of the polysaccharides produced by these seaweeds. With the combination of two spectroscopic techniques (FTIR-ATR and FT-Raman) it is possible to identify the principal seaweed colloids in ground seaweed samples as in extracted material. Since the seaweed samples receive the minimum of handling and treatment (e.g. they are simply dried and ground), the composition determined represents, as accurately as possible, the native composition of the phycocolloids.