The Osteogenic Potential of Brown Seaweeds Extracts

Brown seaweeds are evolutionarily and chemically distinct from land plants and offer significantly higher biodiversity. They produce secondary metabolites, with novel chemical signatures that cannot be found in other organisms. The osteogenic potential of compounds extracted from Ascophyllum nodosum using conventional organic solvents and green extraction technology was tested in a zebrafish system. Zebrafish exhibit a skeleton similar to humans, that can remodel (i.e. it contains osteoblasts, osteoclast and osteocytes)1. In this experiment, zebrafish larvae were used to evaluate the ability of A. nodosum extracts to stimulate opercular bone growth. The concentration of A. nodosum extracts tested ranged between 3-23 µg/ml. NMR spectroscopy and GC-MS were used to characterise the extracts. Preliminary results found that fatty acids extracts (mainly oleic and linoleic acid) which were isolated, using supercritical carbon dioxide as the extractive solvent, had the greatest osteogenic effect.

1. Montazerolghaem, M., et al. Acta Biomater. 19, 10–14(2015).