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The Promise and Challenge of Microbial Alginate Production: A Product with Novel Applications

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Polysaccharides of Microbial Origin

Abstract

Alginate is a polysaccharide that has various established applications in food, textile, and pharmaceutical industries for its viscosifying and gelling properties. In the last two decades, and owing to their biocompatibility, and nontoxicity as well as versatility in view of modifications, several novel applications have been emerged that can be the base of novel future markets. Currently, seaweeds are the largest source for alginate production, and despite the variations in quality and quantity due to changes of climate and sources, most of the commercially produced alginates are still based on brown seaweeds. Nevertheless, alginate can also be biotechnologically produced by species of two families of heterotrophic bacteria, namely Pseudomonas and Azotobacter. Efforts have been made in the past to produce alginate polymers from these bacteria; however, its production never left the lab scale. Herein, the biological function of microbial alginate and the current process aspects with regard to its industrial production as well as the bottlenecks that still exist are highlighted. Based on their unique biochemical and biophysical characteristics and the ability to upgrade microbial alginate polymers through in vitro modifications, the achievements for alginate polymers of the last 10 years in food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical applications are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Kleve, Germany

    Wael Sabra

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  1. Wael Sabra
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Correspondence to Wael Sabra .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. 3B’s Research Group, I3Bs – Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics, University of Minho, Headquarters of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, AvePark, Zona Industrial da Gandra, Barco, Guimarães, Portugal

    Joaquim Miguel Oliveira

  2. 3B’s Research Group, I3Bs – Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics, University of Minho, Headquarters of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, AvePark, Zona Industrial da Gandra, Barco, Guimarães, Portugal

    Hajer Radhouani

  3. 3B’s Research Group, I3Bs – Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics, University of Minho, Headquarters of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, AvePark, Zona Industrial da Gandra, Barco, Guimarães, Portugal

    Rui L. Reis

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Sabra, W. (2022). The Promise and Challenge of Microbial Alginate Production: A Product with Novel Applications. In: Oliveira, J.M., Radhouani, H., Reis, R.L. (eds) Polysaccharides of Microbial Origin. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42215-8_5

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