Background
There is a lot of evidence for the potential health benefits of seaweed consumption and a lower risk of certain cancers has been found in countries with high dietary seaweed intake. This makes seaweed an interesting target for the extraction of natural anticancer products. CyberColloids were successful in securing InterTrade Ireland FUSION funding to explore this potential in collaboration with the University of Ulster.
Outcome
Several different extraction protocols were developed and from these, a range of seaweed extracts were produced and characterised. These extracts were seen to be rich in a range of known bioactive components with potential anticancer benefits. A number of these extracts showed good cytotoxic effect in vitro against MCF-7 cells (breast cancer cell line). This preliminary study has yielded very positive results however, further investigation is now required.
For more information download the presentation "Anti-cancer compounds from Seaweed" from here.