Sodium alginate This powder has a granular or fibrous structure with a yellowish white color. This odorless structure has the chemical formula (C6H8O6)n.
Sodium alginate is a sodium salt of alginic acid, which is a natural polysaccharide found in brown algae. This substance is generally used as a stabilizer and thickener in the food industry. Sodium alginate may cross-link in the presence of divalent cations such as Ca2+ and lead to the formation of stable degradable gels.

Applications of sodium alginate

Alginate is used in many food and medical applications due to its biocompatibility, low toxicity, relatively low cost, and the formation of a soft gel. In fact, in the food industry, alginate is used as a thickener, gelling agent, emulsifier, stabilizer and food texture improver. These days, alginate is used in a large number of foods such as: ice cream, jelly, milk-based drinks, condiments, instant noodles, etc.
It is also used in cosmetics and health products due to its function as a thickener and moisture retainer. For example, alginate helps to keep lipstick color on the surface of the lips by forming a gel network.

Alleginic acid is also used in the pharmaceutical industry. This substance is added to the tablets as a carrier to speed up the disintegration of the tablets for faster release of the medicinal substance. Alginate-based hydrogels are very promising candidates for use as drug delivery systems and are also used as medical implants; Because they are structurally similar to macromolecule-based components in the body and can often be delivered to the body through minimal invasiveness. Alginate is an excellent candidate for protein drug delivery because proteins can be incorporated into alginate-based formulations under relatively mild conditions that minimize their denaturation. Gels can protect them from degradation until release.

Sodium alginate gels are increasingly used as a scaffold for mammalian cell culture in biological studies. Based on the findings of in vitro studies, this substance is biocompatible. So it can be concluded that this substance is also suitable for in vivo use.

Sodium alginate production method

The production method used to extract sodium alginates from brown seaweeds is two ways: 1) calcium alginate method and 2) alginic acid method.
Chemically the process is simple; But problems arise from the physical separations required between sludge residues from viscous solutions and the separation of gelatinous precipitates that hold large amounts of liquid inside the structure (gel structure formation), so they resist filtration and centrifugation.