Australian company trials seaweed as anticoagulant
Updated
An extract from seaweed harvested in Australia's island state, Tasmania, may soon be sold pharmaceutically as an agent to prevent blood clots.
The Tasmanian company, Marinova, has trialed a capsule form of the extract from the introduced Japanese seaweed on humans as an alternative to the anticoagulant drug, Heparin.
Senior researcher, Dr Helen Fitton, says the results are currently being presented at an international biotechnology conference in San Diego.
"We're certainly very excited about this," she said.
"We've had a look at oral ingestion of capsules of seaweed extract powder.
"Several people took some capsules which contained this substance and then we looked at their blood and found out how long it took to clot."
