Carbohydrate normally used as one of main components in energy source, food production, food additives, medical treatment and so on, but additionally carbohydrate (sugar, polysaccharide, or glycan) plays important role in living organisms through molecular recognition such as communication, signaling, adhesion, and immunological process. Recently, there have been raised endless possibilities for the use of biomaterials originated from marine organisms.
Marine organisms such as algae have abundant carbohydrates such as alginate, fucoidan, and so on which have viscous property. Laminaria japonica contains a large amount of alginic acids (alginate: ~20% dry weight and fucoidan : ~5% dry weight). It has been known that alginic acid and fucoidan, laminarin, and mannitol, which are mostly components in Laminaria japonica, have excellent medicinal effects.
Salicornia herbacea contains a rich amino acid and polysaccharides that enhance immune function. The carbohydrate of Salicornia herbacea is slightly different depending on categories such as leaves, stems and roots (especially, the carbohydrate content in the roots is about 80%), but carbohydrates of Salicornia herbacea have an average dry matter content of 50%.
Herein, in order to increase the binding ability, Laminaria japonica was selected as a binder in brown algae, and Salicornia herbacea was used as a binder. An additional component (citric acid) was added for crosslinking of the carbohydrate.
It has been known that carboxyl group in citric acid and hydroxyl group in carbohydrates could be coupled, and produced ester group. These crosslinking actions by carbohydrate components extracted from Marine organisms are expected to increase the compressive strength of the hydroxyapatite pellet as well as positive effect for bone regeneration.