Fucoxathin: what and where

The organism generally grows in colder waters and the edible species are larger. The planet biomass of fucoxanthin-rich brown algae derives from the orders Laminariales and Fucale: which comprise a relatively small percentage of the entire algae classification.

Brown algae production is a long-time and growing industry in areas such as Norway, Scotland, Iceland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal and Denmark; where it is used for fertilizer and many other agricultural and commercial applications.

Research by the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima University, Tokushima, in Japan, has demonstrated not all brown algae with the fucoxanthin are equal: even within the same species, phylum, and genus. It is dependent on the stage of growth whether the carotenoid will be at its peak or dissipated. To quote their findings: "It has been demonstrated that the content of 1 [fucoxanthin] is remarkably higher in the younger stages of the algae than in the later stage."

Giant mats of Sargassum, Macrocytis, and others are so prevalent in the Sargasso Sea that it is named after the algae. The body of water lies in the western North Atlantic. Off the Southeastern United States can also be found huge rafts of the organic matter. Brown algae grow in marine forests, and also serve as a source of nutrient for many marine inhabitants to include the Green abalone; its primary predator. Some brown algae rich in fucoxanthin produce substances to surround the organism as a protective barrier, an others produce nutrients (detrius among them). Depending on the species, herbivorous fish,, invertebrates, bacteria, suspension eating microbes, and species feeding on detrius feed and breed in the seaweed forests. The fucoxanthin pigmented algae plays an important role in the marine food chain.

In addition to the previously mentioned areas of predominant growth, fucoxanthin seaweed near Iceland is said to be the most underexploited resources on earth. The island's southern coast finds domination of the littoral slopes with belts of Ascophyllum, and species bearing agar. Ascophyllum, Laminaria and Fucus can be harvested off the former Soviet Republic's Arctic sea coast in commercial quantities, just as they do in Norway.

Many parts of the southern Baltic could industrialize the production of Furcellaria fastigiata in addition to Denmark's exploitation of this and other brown algae. It would also appear that the expansion by France of brown seaweeds off the Iberian Peninsula has not yet peaked. Retrieval of the multipurpose marine product will be enhanced with exploration of biomass in deep-sea forests in higher latitudes and Polar Regions.

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