Antibacterial, antibiotic and antiviral

(see also below under Candida, Helicobacter pylori/ulcer, Immune deficiency)

Antibacterial
Antibacterial agents present in Wrack seaweed have been shown in clinical research to make it effective against common food poisoning bacteria including the fungus Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, and E. coli and a bacterium associated with pneumonia (109).

Lectin extracted from Fucus seaweed aglutinates Candida guilliermondiii and Candida krusei (138). Japanese scientists isolated an anti-ulcer substance in seaweed which has antimicrobial activity against a long list of human disease-causing bacteria including E.coli, Pseudomonas æruginosa, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Aspergillus, Fusarium and Shigella (10). The fucose component of seaweed is known to act on Helicobacter pylori “much as dust would on a piece of adhesive tape: it clogs the suction cups on the bacteria, preventing it from attaching to the stomach” (3, p58, 136).

In vitro and animal studies have demonstrated the efficacy of a fucoidan extract from Cladosiphon seaweed (known in Japan as Okinawan Mozuku) against Helicobacter pylori, further supported by subsequent human trials in a clinical setting, where similar results were observed against gastric ulcer and non-ulcer dyspepsia (166).

Seagreens® wild wrack seaweeds, all members of the order Fucaceae, or Fucus, are rich in polysaccharides including fucose especially Seagreens® Food Capsules and Food Granules which can be used at high levels of daily intake. The seaweed polysaccharide fucoidan has been shown to inhibit the growth of a number of gram negative and gram positve organisms (139).

Antibiotic
Laboratory research shows wild wrack seaweed extract to be as effective as antibiotic drugs against common food poisoning bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Treptococcus pyogenes, and E. coli, the fungus Candia albicans, and a bacterium associated with pneumonia (19). Antibiotic activity of extracts of brown, green and red seaweeds may be facts in the importance of seaweed to faecal flora (178).

Antiviral
It appears that most if not all seaweed species contain antiviral sulphated polysaccharides. Research has shown a number of these including carageenans, fuciodans and sulphated thamnogalactans, to have substantial antiviral activity against enveloped viruses such as herpes and HIV.

These compounds (the seaweed polysaccharides) block the entrance of viruses into cells, although other algal fractions also have virucidal and enzyme inhibitory activities, or can inhibit syncytium formation (167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172). A useful inhibitory effect against AIDS virus infection from the special polysaccharides in wrack seaweed was proposed in the early 1990s (63), since they make up approximately half of total carbohydrate 700mg/g (see Table 2 below for a comprehensive nutritional profile). In 2004, a research paper attributed one of the unifying characteristics in those countries with unusually low rates of HIV to the regular consumption of seaweed (164).

Fucoidan, a seaweed polysaccharide, has been shown to inhibit the growth of a variety of viruses (143). In cancer studies, fucoidan induced apoptosis (cell replication) of human T-cell leukaemia virus (HTLV) type 1-infected T-cell lines and primary adult T-cell leukaemia cells (see also below under Cancer) (179). Carrageenan has been studied as a potential vaginal microbiocide (173).

The complex sulphated polysaccharides in Seagreens® stimulate lymphocyte and interferon production and other anti-tumour activity; also the immune enhancing T- and B-cells, inhibiting viral pathogenesis. Recent research (2000), using a red algæ Dumontiaceæ has shown that these polysaccharides support the body’s specific immune response to Herpes Simplex and Herpes Zoster viruses, helping to reduce or prevent the occurrence and severity of outbreaks. There was anecdotal evidence of marked improvement in cases of Epstein Barr and Candida. Two US patents were filed for clinical efficacy in the treatment of Herpes I & II.