Brown macroalgae represent one of the most proliferative groups of living organisms in aquatic environments. Due to their abundance, they often cause problems in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, resulting in health problems in humans and the death of various aquatic species. To resolve this, the application of Sargassum has been sought in different research areas, such as food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, since Sargassum is an easy target for study and simple to obtain. In addition, its high content of biocompounds, such as polysaccharides, phenols, and amino acids, among others, has attracted attention. One of the valuable components of brown macroalgae is their polysaccharides, which present interesting bioactivities, such as antiviral, antimicrobial, and antitumoral, among others. There is a wide variety of methods of extraction currently used to obtain these polysaccharides, such as supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), pressurized liquid extraction (PLE), subcritical water extraction (SCWE), ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE), and microwave-assisted extraction (MAE). Therefore, this work covers the most current information on the methods of extraction, as well as the purification used to obtain a polysaccharide from Sargassum that is able to be utilized as alginates, fucoidans, and laminarins. In addition, a compilation of bioactivities involving brown algae polysaccharides in in vivo and in vitro studies is also presented, along with challenges in the research and marketing of Sargassum-based products that are commercially available.
Keywords: alginates; bioactivity; biopolymer; brown macroalgae; extraction methods; fucoidan; laminarin.