Heparin from seaweeds

Heparin is a life-saving drug. It is used in cardio-vascular surgery. The patients who have undergone valve replacement surgery depend on these drugs for their whole lives. About 5000 patients undergo valve replacement surgery annually in India. Unfortunately, the drug is not available in the market...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current science (Bangalore) 1997-10, Vol.73 (7), p.566-566
Main Authors: Subramanian, A., Kannan, L., Pugalendhi, T., Muruganantham, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biotechnology
Clams
Heparin
Polysaccharides
Raw materials
SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE
Seaweeds
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Summary:Heparin is a life-saving drug. It is used in cardio-vascular surgery. The patients who have undergone valve replacement surgery depend on these drugs for their whole lives. About 5000 patients undergo valve replacement surgery annually in India. Unfortunately, the drug is not available in the market. The reason attributed is non-availability of raw materials. The raw materials are beef lung and porcine intestine. There is a need to investigate other raw materials for heparin. Preliminary investigations were made on flounder, cod, tautog, scup, red crab, mussel, scallop, sea clam, back water clam, blood clam and edible oyster.
ISSN:0011-3891