Seaweed in Health and Disease Prevention

459 Pages·2016·24.585 MB·English

by  Fleurence, Joël, Levine, Ira

Seaweed in Health and
Disease Prevention
Edited by
Joël Fleurence
Ira Levine
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Dedication
To my sons Julien and Simon for the joy and the happiness
that they bring to my life.
—Joël Fleurence
To Dr. Patricia Bonamo for her faith in playing a hunch.
To MILKS for their loving support and to my wife and
best friend Laurie.
—Ira Levine
List of Contributors
E. Ar Gall
University of Brest, Brest, France
J.-M. Bard
University of Nantes, Nantes, France
P. Baweja
University of Delhi, Delhi, India
N. Bourgougnon
UBS, IUEM, Vannes, France
D. Cheney
Northeastern University, Nahant, MA, United States
L. Coiffard
University of Nantes, Nantes, France
C. Couteau
University of Nantes, Nantes, France
A. Couzinet-Mossion
University of Nantes, Nantes, France
C. Dawes
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
A. Delaney
Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
P. Déléris
University of Nantes, Nantes, France
E. Deslandes
IUEM-UBO, Technopôle Brest-Iroise, Plouzané, France
J. Dumay
University of Nantes, Nantes, France
J. Fleurence
University of Nantes, Nantes, France
K. Frangoudes
Université de Brest, UMR AMURE, Brest, France
S.-A. Ii
Miyazaki Municipal University, Miyazaki, Japan
M. Kendel
Bureau d’Etudes et Conseil, Vannes, France
S. Kraan
Ocean Harvest Technology, Milltown, Ireland
xv
xvi List of Contributors
S. Kumar
University of Delhi, Delhi, India
I. Levine
University of Southern Maine, Lewiston, ME, United States
M. Morançais
University of Nantes, Nantes, France
H. Nazih
University of Nantes, Nantes, France
D. Sahoo
University of Delhi, Delhi, India
V. Stiger-Pouvreau
IUEM-UBO, Technopôle Brest-Iroise, Plouzané, France
C. Vonthron-Sénécheau
University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
G. Wielgosz-Collin
University of Nantes, Nantes, France
About the Editors
Dr. Ira A. Levine, PhD, is a tenured professor of
natural and applied sciences at the University of
Southern Maine, Chairperson of the USM Lewiston
Auburn College Faculty, and Director of the USM,
LAC Aquatic Research Lab (algal genetic engineer-
ing, physiological ecology, and new product devel-
opment). In addition, Dr. Levine is the President and
Board Chair of the Algae Foundation and President
and Board Chair of Professors Beyond Borders. Dr.
Levine was awarded a 2009–10 US State Department,
Fulbright New Century Scholar and in 2007–08 was a
visiting professor of biology at Duke University. Dr. Levine combines 30 years of applied
and basic research in molecular, physiological ecology, and cultivation of algae, aquatic
farming management, and aquaculture engineering. Dr. Levine’s farming experience
includes open-ocean and pond cultivation in Canada, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia,
the Philippines, and the United States (Hawaii, Florida, and Maine). Current efforts
include algal cultivar enhancement for aquaculture and agriculture feed supplementa-
tion, human nutraceuticals and cosmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and plant-based biofuels.
Dr. Joel Fleurence, PhD, is a professor of marine
biology and biochemistry at Nantes University. He
is one of two directors of the Research Laboratory
“Sea, Molecules, Health.” He has been a member
of the University National Council since 2007 and
was elected vice-president of the section “Biology
of Organisms” in 2011. He is a senior scientist and
an international expert on seaweed valorization
(100 international publications including patents).
In 1985, he began his research career in the pharma-
ceutical industry in the French company Roussel-
Uclaf. In 1990, he was recruited by the Institute of
Valorisation of Seaweeds (CEVA, Brittany, France)
to lead research into the chemical composition and nutritional properties of macroalgae.
Professor Fleurence has participated in the establishment of the French regula-
tion on marine algae used as sea vegetables. In 1994, he was appointed head of the
laboratory “Proteins and Quality” at Ifremer (Research French Organism for the Sea
Exploitation) and developed research on the nutritional properties of seaweed protein
for use in human or animal food. Since 2002, he has been working as a professor at
the University of Nantes and leads research on the development of seaweed uses as
protein or pigment sources for industry.
xvii
Acknowledgment
The editors thank Mr. O. Barbaroux for the photographs of seaweed factories and
markets.
xix
CHAPTER
1
Algae: A Way of Life and
Health
I. Levine
University of Southern Maine, Lewiston, ME, United States
“Vilor alga” (translated as “more vile or worthless than algae”), wrote Virgil, the
Latin Poet, in 30 BC. Civilization was aware of the role of algae in the human condi-
tion long before Virgil. The use of macroalgae dates back to Shen Nung, the father
of husbandry and medicine, approximately 3000 BC (Doty, 1979). Seaweeds were
reported to be utilized in Iceland in 960 BC, the Chinese Book of Poetry (800–600 BC)
praised housewives for cooking with algae, and the Chinese Materia Medica (600 BC)
refers to algae as follows: “Some algae are a delicacy fit for the most honorable guest,
even for the King himself” (Porterfield, 1922; Wood, 1974).
Macroalgae (seaweeds) are a diverse group of predominantly marine, multicel-
lular, photosynthetic, chlorophyll “a”-containing, eukaryotic organisms, lacking
true roots, stems, and leaves with simple reproductive structures and found from
the intertidal zone to 300-m deep. The macroalgae or seaweeds are evolutionarily
diverse and are found in two kingdoms, Plantae and Chromista, and four phyla, Cha-
rophyta (Chara), Chlorophyta (green), Rhodophyta (red), and Ochrophyta (brown).
The approximately 10,000 described marine macroalgal species are segregated by
photosynthetic pigment content, carbohydrate food reserve, cell wall components,
and flagella construction and orientation. This eclectic group has evolved over the
last 600–900 million years occupying a variety of ecological niches, ie, attached to
hard substrata, unconsolidated sand and mud, other algae, seagrasses, free floating,
and, on rare occasions, parasitic. There are many additional groups of algae, known
collectively as microalgae, including but not limited to the blue green bacteria (eg,
Spirulina sp.), diatoms, and dinoflagellates, which can form biofilms, colonial for-
mations, and turfs. Occasionally these formations are considered “macroalgae,” but
for the purpose of this text they lie outside of the scope of this book.
Early examples of utilization of seaweeds for medicinal purposes include the
Chinese use of Sargassum for goiter (16th century, Chinese herbal, “Pen Tsae Kan
Mu”), Gelidium for intestinal afflictions, and Laminaria for the dilation of the cervix
in difficult child births (Dawson, 1966). The Japanese’s lack of goiter (one case/mil-
lion people) is contributed to their large consumption of seaweed and their iodine
concentration. Oriental seaweed iodine concentrations range from 18 to 1600 mg/kg
dry weight (Chapman and Chapman, 1980). Agar, a phycocolloidal extract from
commercial red algae, eg, Gracilaria, has been used since the 17th century as a
Seaweed in Health and Disease Prevention. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-802772-1.00001-4 1
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
2 CHAPTER 1 Algae: A Way of Life and Health
laxative and is perhaps the world’s first diet fad. In addition, during times of war,
agar was utilized as a wound dressing because of its antiblood-clotting activity allow-
ing wounds to be appropriately disinfected. Subsequently, agar was identified as the
ideal substrate for culturing bacteria, assisting with the foundational research into
the microbial world. Brown algal phycocolloidal extracts, alginate and algin, have
been used in the binding of pills and ointments, cholesterol reduction, as a hemostatic
agent (control of bleeding), and have replaced agar as the primary dental mold gel.
The ancient Greeks utilized red algae as a vermifuge, thought to be the same alga
rediscovered on Corsica in 1775, known as Corsican moss. Finally, a common alga
from both North America and Europe, Chondrus crispus, a red alga, has been used
as a remedy for urinary tract infections, diarrhea, breast infections, and tuberculosis
(Dawson, 1966). Additional traditional algal uses as medicines include: dulse
(Palmaria palmata) extract used to assist in breaking of fevers (18th-century England),
bull kelp steam extract used to fight headaches (Alaska, USA), Durvillaea as a cure
for scabies (New Zealand), and antifungal and antibiotic compounds from the brown,
green and red algae (Chapman and Chapman, 1980).
The inclusion of large amounts of seaweeds in a balanced diet has been connected
to decreased rates of many of the “Western lifestyle” diseases (eg, cancer, cardiovas-
cular diseases). Reduced rates of breast cancer in postmenopausal Japanese women
are thought to be connected to the ingestion of seaweeds in general and the kelps
Kombu and Wakame in particular. Potential mechanisms include: increased fiber
influence on fecal bulk and bowel transit time, alteration of posthepatic metabolism
of sterols, antibiotic and enzymatic influence on enteric bacterial populations, and
increased immune response (Teas, 1983, as reported in Erhart, 2015a). Additional
research efforts include (1) a 95% reduction in cancer rates when fed a hot water-
extracted kelp powder and (2) apoptosis of stomach, colon, and leukemia cancer cells
by F- and U-fucoidan-sulfated polysaccharides from kelps (Yamamoto et al., 1986
and Anonymous, 1990–1996, as reported in MCSV Cancer Prevention and Treat-
ment bulletin). Miller (2008 as reported in Erhart, 2015b) reported an increase in
fibrocystic breast disease in American women rose from 3% to 90% in the 1920s
and 2000s, respectively. In addition, he infers that 15% of American women experi-
ence iodine deficiencies and the same percentage of American women develop breast
cancer; however, Japanese women experience the lowest cancer rates by including
200 times as much iodine per day as their American counterparts (45,000 μg/day
and 240 μg/day, respectively). Dr. Miller hypothesizes that both fibrocystic disease
and breast cancer are iodine deficiency disorders. Kelps provide some of the highest
amounts of bioavailable iodine, up to 18,000 times as much as fresh vegetables.
As a young man coming from New York City, seaweeds were considered to be
just a smelly mess found on the beach but after 10 years of studying algae in Hawaii,
the author has embraced his Hawaiian roots and uses the term “limu,” which accord-
ing to Pukui and Elbert (1977) as reported by Abbott (1984) is: “a general name for
all kinds of plants living under water, both fresh and salt, also algae growing in any
damp place in the air, as on the ground, rocks, and on other plants; also mosses, liv-
erworts and lichens…” However, for most Hawaiians, limu means edible seaweeds
Algae: A Way of Life and Health 3
(Abbott, 1984). Along with fish and poi, limu constituted the troika of the Hawaiian
balanced diet, providing vitamins A, B, C, minerals (iodine), and protein. Histori-
cal Hawaiian limu usage included the treatment of coral cuts, representing a nearly
instant infection, which were historically treated with Sargassum, similar to the
traditional use of mosses as a poultice. In addition, seaweeds were used in religious
ceremonies (burial cleansing rituals), cultural celebrations (weddings and hula
dancing), and family celebrations.
“Is Seaweed the New Lobster?” was a headline from the March 2015 edition
of Down East: The Magazine of Maine; quite a transformation from the “the stuff
washed up on the beach, which tends to be rotting and full of flies” (Sneddon, 2015).
Maine, a maritime-based state in the northeastern corner of the United States, has
a long history of seaweed utilization dating back to its colonial period and beyond,
when marine macroalgae were referred to as “sea manure” (Sneddon, 2015). As
algae in general and seaweeds in particular have played an ever-increasing role in
the human diet, health, and well-being, its utilization and product development have
rapidly expanded our appreciation for its diversity of uses. As with lobsters, which
were plentiful and served up as food for the state’s prisoner population, seaweeds
have been experiencing a frameshift from the smelly stuff on the beach to a source
of valued balanced nutrition.
Shep Erhart, the founder of Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, is a pioneer of seaweed
utilization in the United States and has dedicated his life to the development and
marketing of seaweed products throughout America and beyond. In the 1970s he
realized the potential for seaweeds as a complete source of colloidal, chelated miner-
als, trace elements, and vitamins to replace the loss of these nutrients from processed
food products. “Some people who are mineral deficient get around it and they go
crazy…It can kind of buzz you out because it is so energizing” (Shep Erhart, quoted
from Sneddon, 2015).
“The Road from Science Geek to Being Cool, Algal Physiological Ecology: a
Global Economic Development Engine” is the title of a seminar given by the author
at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont, USA, in March 2010. How does one
become “cool” being a phycologist (someone who studies algae)? Kaitlynn Levine, a
Middlebury College molecular biology major, coined the phrase after algae and algal-
based biofuels became a research and development priority in the United States during
the 21st century. If studying algae, previous to renewed interests, was held in such
disregard or benign neglect, then why would anyone dedicate his or her life to algae?
Phycology has a long history of remarkable, dedicated scientists and lay practitioners
who have advanced our algal-based knowledge through their tireless field and labora-
tory efforts. Massive algal collections were assembled and herbarium libraries estab-
lished at universities (eg, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts) and museums
(eg, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii). Meticulous anatomical, reproductive, and
systematic treatises were published expanding our body of knowledge. Biotechnologi-
cal methodologies were incorporated into current molecular, genomic, ultrastructural,
physiological ecology, and biochemical studies advancing our understanding of the
biology, ecology, systematics, and commercial value of algae. Algae represent a field