Environmentally Friendly Laundry
Environmentally friendly laundry could be the future. This is thanks to seaweed’s ability to clean themselves. An enzyme called phosphodiesterase has been identified as the ability behind this. The enzyme has been demonstrated to break down sticky molecules. These molecules occur naturally on the seaweed’s surface. The discovery was actually found 10 years ago. Researchers were looking for a way to effectively clean a ships’ hulls. Now they are working with Procter and Gamble (P&G) to utilise the enzyme as a modern laundry detergent.
What’s good about this enzyme?
The enzyme can work at higher temperatures but operates best in cold water. This makes sense as it has evolved over time to work most effectively in the ocean. The conditions are normally cool or cold in temperature. Phosphodiesterase occur naturally and can be found on the skin. They are typically not very resilient. However, the ones found in seaweed are. Additionally, they can tolerate and work at hotter temperatures where typical ones could not.
How does it work?
Bacteria have the ability to produce powerful adhesives that help them stick to surfaces. On the other hand, they can also produce a compound that helps to break down adhesives. Interestingly similar glues were found to be present on clothing that contained difficult to remove stains and odours. Therefore, using these enzymes can help to create detergent that is environmentally friendly for laundry.
What is seaweed also good for?
Seaweed has many impressive qualities and can be used as eco-friendly packaging to flavour enhancers. However, the thing that impresses us the most if it’s iodine content! Seaweed is a naturally rich source of iodine and it is actually the only natural vegan source! Iodine is commonly found in white fish and dairy but in much lower amounts. Whereas, with our capsules, you only need to take one to two of our capsules a day to make sure you are consuming enough.
To put that in perspective consuming 60ml of whole milk, 32g of a banana, 120g of spinach or 12 whole mackerel would be the equivalent iodine content to consuming 1 teaspoon of our seaweed.
