Sakeena Tan Si Yu

• BSc (Hons) Food & Human Nutrition (NU Singapore)
• Designing a physiologically relevant method for assessing polyphenol content in seaweeds

Polyphenols from seaweeds have been shown to reduce the absorption of fats and sugars. The release of polyphenols is important to their activity but assessment is generally through extraction in acetone, which is not physiologically relevant. This project assessed the release profile of polyphenols in a Model Gut System (MGS) simulating human digestion. Compared to F. vesiculosus, A. nodosum released greater amounts in acetone but the opposite in the MGS and overall higher levels were released from both seaweeds in the MGS. Therefore we can now, understand which seaweeds release the greatest amount of polyphenols in a physiological environment.

Project Supervisor: Dr Matthew Wilcox, Institute for Cell & Molecular Biosciences
 
Funding Source: Newcastle University