k-Oligocarrageenan Promoting Growth of Hybrid Maize: Influence of Molecular Weight.

k-Oligocarrageenan (OC) is an effective biostimulator and a protector against disease infections for plants. However, the effect of OC molecular weight (MW) on plant growth is not fully understood. In this work, OCs with three different MWs (42, 17 and 4 kDa) was prepared by varying the degradation reaction time using ascorbic acid as a reagent. The product structure was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) data. The growth promotion for maize (Zea mays L.) plants was investigated by foliar spray application of the prepared OCs. Field trials were carried out in two years, 2018 and 2019. The results showed that among treatments, OC with 4 kDa exhibited the best performance in both crop growth and grain yield parameters which indicated increases compared to the control in plant height (6.9-19.9%), length of ears (12.2%), diameter of ears (9.1%), fresh grain weight (17.8%), dry grain weight (20.0%) and grain yield (21.3%). Moreover, low MW OC augmented NP uptake in the plant growth while no effect on K uptake was observed. Therefore, OC with low MWs is potentially promising to apply as a promoter to enhance yield of crops.

A novel sulfated fucan from Vietnamese sea cucumber Stichopus variegatus: Isolation, structure and anticancer activity in vitro.

In the present study, three sulfated polysaccharides, two fractions of fucosylated chondroitin sulfates, and one sulfated fucan were isolated from the body wall of the Vietnamese sea cucumber Stichopus variegatus. The structure of the sulfated fucan fraction SvF3 from S. variegatus was investigated for the first time. According to NMR spectroscopy data, the sulfated fucan SvF3 contained 1,2- and 1,3-linked α-l-fucopyranose residues. Sulfate groups were found at the 2 and/or 4 positions. The structural analysis of fucoidan was assisted by tandem mass spectrometry; the recently-developed technique of autohydrolysis in heavy­oxygen water for the obtaining of selectively labeled fucoidan fragments was applied. The labeling (+2 Da mass shift at the reducing end) allowed us to assign MS/MS data unambiguously, and thus to confirm the NMR data and revealed minor sulfation at position 3. It was shown that the sulfated fucan SvF3 was not cytotoxic to human breast cancer T-47D and MDA-MB-231 cell lines, and it inhibited colony formation of those cells in vitro. SvF3 also possessed slight activity against migration of MDA-MB-231 cells in vitro.