marine drugs Article Extraction and Identification of Phlorotannins from the Brown Alga, Sargassum fusiforme (Harvey) Setchell Yajing Li 1, Xiaoting Fu 1,*, Delin Duan 2,3, Xiaoyong Liu 4, Jiachao Xu 1 and Xin Gao 1 1 College of Food Science & Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266000, China;
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[email protected] (X.G.) 2 Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China;
[email protected] 3 State Key Lab of Seaweed Bioactive Substances, Qingdao 266000, China 4 Shandong Haizhibao Ocean Science and Technology Co., Ltd., Qingdao 266000, China;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +86-532-8203-2182 Academic Editor: Peer B. Jacobson Received: 5 January 2017; Accepted: 16 February 2017; Published: 21 February 2017 Abstract: Phlorotannins are a group of complex polymers of phloroglucinol (1,3,5-trihydroxybenzene), which are unique compounds from marine brown algae. In our present study, a procedure for extraction and enrichment of phlorotannins from S. fusiforme with highly antioxidant potentials was established. After comparison of different extraction methods, the optimal extraction conditions were established as follows. The freeze-dried seaweed powder was extracted with 30% ethanol-water solvent with a solid/liquid ratio of 1:5 at temperature of 25 ◦C for 30 min. After extraction, the phlorotannins were fractioned by different solvents, among which the ethyl acetate fraction exhibited both the highest total phlorotannin content (88.48 ± 0.30 mg PGE/100 mg extract) and the highest antioxidant activities.