Process for the preparation of agarose polymer from seaweed extractive

摘要

The present invention relates to a more convenient and energy efficient process for the preparation of agarose from Gracilaria and Gelidiella spp., more particularly Gracilaria dura and Gelidella acerosa from Indian waters, said process comprising steps of prc- treating the dry seaweed with alkali, rinsing the pre-treated seaweed until the washing shows a pH ranging between 7 and 9, adding water, autoclaving to obtain extractive, centrifuging hot seaweed extractive, then treating the clear hot extractive with surface active chemicals to induce precipitation of agarose, centrifuging the mass to remove the adhering liquid, rinsing the centrifuged mass with water to remove the surface active chemical, preparing a hot sol of the agarose mass in minimum quantity of water, re- precipitating the agarose with iso-propanol to achieve a product having dispersibility while preparing gel, and demonstrating that the said gel in DNA gel electrophoresis studies shows performance equal to that of gel obtained through more conventional process of agarose preparation from the same seaweed extractives as also to gel prepared from commercial benchmark.