Preparation, characterization and benchmarking of agarose from Gracilaria dura of Indian waters

Agarose was prepared from a red alga Gracilaria dura occurring in the Arabian Sea at the west coast of India. The agarose has been characterized by studying its physicochemical properties as well as by FTIR, 13C NMR and CP-MAS spectra, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrophotometric and rheological measurements. This agarose had gel strength 2200 g cm−2, gelling temperature ⩽ 35 °C, sulphate content ⩽ 0.25%, [α]58945-22° and Mw 1.25 × 105 g mol−1. These properties were benchmarked against those of the commercially available agarose products of Sigma (A0576) and Fluka, and were found to be comparable.