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영어

Fucoidan is a marine sulphated polysaccharides of cell-wall matrix of brown algae, containing large proportions of L-fucose and sulphate, together with minor amounts of other sugars like xylose, galactose, glucose, mannose, uronic acid, and rhamnose. For the past years, fucoidan has been extensively studied due to its numerous biological activities such as anticancer, anticoagulant, antithrombotic, antiinflammatory and antiviral. However, the whitening activity of fucoidan has not been elucidated yet. This study was to identify the depigmenting effect of crude fucoidan isolated from the sporophyll of Korean brown seaweeds Undaria pinnatifida at coastal area of Wando, South Korea. The crude fucoidan was isolated by acidic extraction method. Melanin assay and MTT assay was done to confirm the depigmenting activity in B16F10 melanoma cells and melan-a melanocyte cells. The results showed that the crude fuicoidan exhibit 29% melanin inhibition in B16F10 melanoma cells and 54% melanin inhibition in melan-a melanocyte cells at 100 ㎍/㎖ . In the both cell lines, crude fuicoidan did not showed cell cytotoxicity up to the concentration 100 ㎍/㎖. The crude fucoidan has been purified to determine its structure.