| Arramara and R&D Projects |
R&D is a key element for a commercial industry because of its role at different levels i.e. in production (Creation and Validation of new products), quality insurance and quality control (Production of a stable constant product in agreement with client needs) and marketing (Provides to the clients the scientific evidences of the interest and advantages to use the products).
Arramara Teo is already involved in on-going research projects and has participated in the application of several research proposals that are in evaluation for the moment.
Arramara Teo is associated to an Enterprise Ireland-Innovation Partnership project titled A strategy to quantify and characterize Fucoidan from Macroalgae harvested on the West Coast of Ireland and to evaluate high-value, novel biotechnological applications. This project is leaded by Dr. Maria Tuohy from the Biochemistry Department at NUI Galway.
Background
Brown macro-algae produce a range of polysaccharides, in the form of storage carbohydrates or as key structural components of their cell walls. The main polysaccharides identified to-date in brown macro-algae are Alginic acids (or alginates), laminarans and Fucoidans. Alginic acids, which have a long history of use in industrial and food processing and agriculture because of their ability to alter viscosity, gel strength and impart stability to aqueous, solutions and emulsions (Indergaard and Ostgaard, 1991). The Fucoidans have recently attracted considerable interest because of their reported potent bio-activities, e.g. anti-microbial and anti-viral properties. Very little is known about the biological basis of these effects and further research and development is necessary to support efforts to develop higher value applications for Irish kelp.
Concerns are increasing about use of antibiotics and chemical compounds with residual effects in animal feeds. The use of natural antimicrobial substances has the potential to provide more desirable solutions for more effective control healthcare in animal husbandry and would avoid several problems induced by the use of current antibiotics. The potential also exists for corresponding applications for Irish macro-algae extracts, and associated commercialization, in the production of novel nutraceuticals and other human healthcare products.
Goals
The two-year project seeks to provide vital scientific and technical information to support the development of new markets and applications for Irish Kelp products. Three important strands (see below) will underpin this project, which will, in addition, seek to develop supporting biotechnology to enhance process and sales strategies to exploit fully natural bioactive components (specific carbohydrates termed fucoidans) in Irish Kelps harvested in the BMW region. This crucial research support will enable investigations for development and commercialization of high-value nutraceuticals/bio-pharmaceuticals for use primarily in animal health and nutrition (initially in shrimp feed, but with potential applications in veterinary healthcare, animal husbandry and human healthcare). The three project/technical strands are outlined below. The market/commercial potential of this project is very significant, in that novel high-value nutraceuticals/bio-pharmaceuticals are being developed from low-cost, generally regarded as safe raw materials.
The technical programme of this project has been sub-divided into 3 main experimental strands:
Strand 1: Investigation of seasonal, species-dependent and spatial variation (4 different sites on the West coast of Ireland) in levels of Fucoidan.
Strand 2: Evaluation of the effects of processing on fucoidan composition and stability in finished products.
Strand 3: Preliminary studies to correlate biophysical properties and composition of Fucoidan preparations with bioactivity, especially anti-microbial and anti-viral activity.
This project has been funded from December 2003 to December 2005.
A small 4-month research project titled Effects of the use of a crude macroalgal extract (Ascophyllum nodosum) in juvenile Turbot (Psetta maxima) diet has been launched in collaboration with the Laboratory of Marine Biology and Biotechnology of the University of Caen (Normandie, France).
This first genuine experiment aims to evaluate the potential and limits in using a seaweed extract in marine fish diet. This work looks at the evolution of basic parameters such as length, weight or appetence of juvenile turbot (average starting weight 9g) during 3 months when fed with a commercial fish diet supplemented with 0, 5 or 10% of seaweed extract.
The results will help in determine the possibility of use of such seaweed extracts in Turbot and flat fishes for their potential use a natural anti-bacterial and anti-viral agents.
The other projects where Arramara Teo is also involved in are for the moment at the evaluation stage so only few indications can be written about it.
-The most recent one is a project of both in vitro an field trials of commercial macroalgal extracts on strawberry production schemes.
-Another one is based on the study of macroalgae for fish feed formulation.
-The last one is about the establishment of an analytical procedure to easily distinguish between Inorganic arsenic and Arsenosugars. Arsenosugars or organic arsenic naturally occur in seaweed but are totally inoffensive to human, animals and plant. This research project aims too clearly identify the differences between the two opposite compounds. |
