Natural heparin-seaweed(and a source of Iodine!)

Edible seaweed 'stops blood clotting'


18th June 2008, 10:30 WST



An Australian biotechnology company turning edible seaweed into an anti-blood clotting product is presenting its work to an international conference in the US.

The biotechnology company, Marinova, says it is developing the vegetable-based alternative to the animal-sourced drug Heparin from undaria seaweed, harvested in Tasmania's east-coast waters.

Lovers of Japanese food will better know undaria as wakame seaweed, usually found in miso soup.

The Heparin-like products being derived from the seaweed are called fucoidans.

Marinova CEO Nick Falk said fucoidans could replace Heparin.

"Here we have a completely natural, traceable, Heparin alternative that has no toxicity problems and is not synthetic - this is potentially a huge market," he said.

Mr Falk is due to explain Marinova's progress at the BIO 2008 conference in San Diego this week.

Trials using the fucoidans on human blood have been encouraging and Marinova's head researcher, Dr Helen Fitton, says the seaweed anti-coagulant could be commercially available within 10 years.

The blood samples used in experiments have come from people who took capsules containing fucoidans.

AAP
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?Men...ContentID=79522