OBTAINING ALGINATE-CONTAINING GEL FROM THE BROWN KELP SEAWEED EUALARIA FISTULOSA FROM KAMCHATKA

The giant kelp Eualaria fistulosa forms underwater forests in different regions of the Northern Pacifics in-cluding Kamchatka, but still is not an object of commercial gathering. In this paper, we present data on its anatomical structure and results of experiments aimed at developing technology for preparing algal gel. The rate and condition of tissue and cell wall degradation occurring during thermal-alkaline treatment of different parts of E. fistulosa thallus was checked using microscope. Because of different histological organization, pigmentation, and density of E. fistulosa blade and midrib, the gels obtained from them had different organo-leptic characteristics and required different amount of chemical reagents and different times of thermal-alkaline treatment for production at the same temperature and hydromodule (60оС and 1 : 10, respectively). The midrib macerated longer, and more sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) was required for its maceration. In general, it was shown that the algal gel obtained from E. fistulosa was characterized by a high viscosity. In different experiments, being measured on a viscometer with a nozzle «5», the viscosity made 75–85 mm2/s for a gel prepared from blades and 79–85 mm2/s for a gel prepared from midrib.