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carrageenan
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carrageenan

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Also known as Carrageen

thumb|Underwater Eucheuma farming in the [[Philippines for carrageenan production]] Carrageenans or carrageenins ( ; ) are a family of natural linear sulfated polysaccharides. They are extracted from red edible seaweeds. Carrageenans are widely used in the food industry for their gelling, thickening, and stabilizing properties. Their main application is in dairy and meat products, due to their strong binding to food proteins. Carrageenans have emerged as a promising candidate in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications as they resemble animal glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). They ar

~14 min read

Encyclopedic overview

13 sections
Contents
  • Properties
  • Production
  • Semi-refined
  • Refined
  • Mixed processing
  • Grades
  • Uses and applications
  • Food and other domestic uses
  • Regulatory status
  • Research
  • See also
  • References
  • Further reading

thumb|Underwater Eucheuma farming in the [[Philippines for carrageenan production]] Carrageenans or carrageenins ( ; ) are a family of natural linear sulfated polysaccharides. They are extracted from red edible seaweeds. Carrageenans are widely used in the food industry for their gelling, thickening, and stabilizing properties. Their main application is in dairy and meat products, due to their strong binding to food proteins. Carrageenans have emerged as a promising candidate in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications as they resemble animal glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). They are used for tissue engineering, wound coverage, and drug delivery.

Carrageenans contain 15–40% ester-sulfate content, which makes them anionic polysaccharides. They can be mainly categorized into three classes based on their sulfate content. Kappa-carrageenan has one sulfate group per disaccharide, iota-carrageenan has two, and lambda-carrageenan has three.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “carrageenan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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