KOCHI: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised a research article authored by scientists at the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) highlighting the potential of seaweed as an effective immunotherapy against coronavirus. The article titled ‘Can sulphated polysaccharides from seaweed provide a prophylactic or therapeutic solution to Covid-19 pandemic?’, authored by Asish K Jha, Suseela Mathew and Ravishankar C N, was published in Current Science journal recently. The WHO has shared the article on its website section ‘Covid-19 Global Literature on Coronavirus Disease’ as information to help the world fight the pandemic.
Seaweed is considered as one of the easily accessible and most abundant live species in marine ecosystem.
Carrageenan, a sulphated polysaccharide from red seaweed, has already been tried as a therapeutic agent for respiratory illness like common cold and influenza virus .