DEFINITION

Sodium Alginate is the purified carbohydrate product extracted from brown seaweeds by the use of dilute alkali. It consists chiefly of the sodium salt of Alginic Acid, a linear, unbranched, amorphous copolymer of β-d-mannuronic acid (M) and α-l-guluronic acid (G) linked to each other by 1→4 glycosidic bonds. The M and G units in the alginates may be randomly or non-randomly arrayed as heterogeneous or homogeneous sequences. It contains NLT 90.8% and NMT 106.0% of sodium alginate, calculated on the dried basis. The typical average molecular weight for Sodium Alginate is in the range of 10,000–600,000 g/mol.