The presence of phenolic compounds in isolated cell walls of brown algae

We isolated the cell walls of Hormosira banksii (Turner) Decaisne (Hormosir aceae) and Phyllospora comosa (Labillardiere) C. Agardh zygotes and used li ght and electron microscopy to study the presence of phenolic deposits in t hese walls. The isolated walls had little contaminating cellular debris. Ph enolic compounds are an important component of brown algal cell walls and a re conspicuous toward the inside of the isolated walls. These compounds sta in with toluidine Blue O, neutral red, fast red GG, osmium tetroxide, and t hose in Hormosira autofluoresce. Wall isolation is the important first step in thr process of chemical analysis of polyphenolic compounds present in t hese walls. This is the first paper to describe the presence of phenolic co mponents in isolated cell walls of brown algae.