Preparation and characterization of oligomannuronates from alginate degraded by hydrogen peroxide

Macromolecular alginate extracted from brown seaweeds was treated with acid to generate mannuronate blocks. The resulting polymannuronates were degraded by hydrogen peroxide with a procedure optimized for obtaining high recovery of low molecular weight saccharides. The resulted mixture of different sized oligomannuronates was separated by gel chromatography on a Bio-gel P-4 column and Mono Q column. The purified oligomers were characterized by anion-exchange HPLC as well as spectrum analysis. This report provides a general procedure for generation and purification of oligomannuronates within the size of 2–7 sugar units from alginate.