Does anyone know what is the scientific name of the disease (white dots) happens on the leaf of brown algae? How could it happen? Why should we remove the white dots by brushing while we are going to extract the alginate from this brown algae at the beginning step? Thank you.
There are bryozoans: a tiny animals that live in colonies. You have to remove them, like other epiphytic organisms, because they could affect the quality of the alginate or another compound. Also you could contaminate your sample with other non-algal compounds
White spots might be of spats of bivalves or gastropods apart from epiphytic organisms. It is advisable to remove these spots before extraction of high quality algal gums of industrial importance.
These are all epiphytes may be animals (Bryozons) or some agal forms ( Ectocarpus and Bangiopsis) also present on the thallus of Sargassum, Laminaria and Lobophora. Before extraction of the fine chemicals we have to clean the material properly remove all debris and epiphytes and allow to shade drying for getting quality products. Thank you