Matís is now starting work on a project called: "Cartilage sugars and bioactive substances from sea otters" and a start-up meeting in the project was held this morning. The project will focus on the development of the process of processing bioactive substances from sea edema, from the processing of chondroitin sulphate from sea edema to the production and purification of chondroitin sulphate oligosaccharides processed with specific sugar-degrading enzymes.
Processing processes will also be developed to produce extracts with advanced bioactivity. The aim is for the project to lead to the development of production products with standardized content and functionality that can be sold in markets in Europe, Japan and Korea and beyond.
Studies have shown that chondroitin sulfate oligosaccharides have a beneficial effect on blood pressure, immune system, digestion, oxidative processes, inflammatory processes, rheumatism and other aspects of human and animal physical activity. Therefore, chondroitin sulfate oligosaccharides can be used as medicines, health or dietary supplements. Such sugars can be produced by specific enzyme degradation of chondrotin sulfate polysaccharide. Chondrotin sulfate polysaccharides can be extracted in large quantities from seaweed, which is an underused species with high utilization potential. Furthermore, research has shown that many types of edema have a lot of bioactive substances that can be isolated or further processed.
The project is funded by the Rannís Technology Development Fund and the AVS Fisheries Research Fund and is carried out in collaboration with IceProtein in Sauðárkrókur, Reykofninn Grundarfjörður and the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Iceland.