The brown seaweeds of Scotland, their importance and applications

With more than 50% of the UK coastline is in Scotland, there is a great opportunity to develop Scotland’s economy by rational use of sustainable marine bio-sources. We review the importance of seaweeds in general and more specifically rack brown seaweeds and their economic importance. The rules and regulations governing the harvesting of these seaweeds potential sites for harvesting in Scotland are discussed, along with the status of industrial application. Finally, the extraction and separation methods for natural products from these seaweeds are described along with their phytochemical profiles. The key message is a large opportunity for development of seaweed processing industry in Scotland, based on a sustainable resource, with many new potential applications in agriculture, energy, nutrition, biomaterials, composting, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and others. The chemical diversity of the natural compounds present in these seaweeds is an opportunity to further investigate a range of chemical scaffolds, evaluate their biological activities, and develop them for better pharmaceutical or biotechnological applications.