An HPSEC-RI/MALLS system was used to determine the weight average molecular weight (MW) of the carrageenans. The system was equipped with a refractive index detector (L-7490, Hitachi, Merck, Germany) and a multi angle laser light scattering (MALLS) detector (SLD7100, PSS Polymer Standards Service, Germany). The polymers were separated on a TSKgel G6000PWXL column (Tosoh Bioscience, Japan) at 60 °C. As described by , 0.1 M lithium chloride was used as the eluent to suppress aggregation of the carrageenans. The analysis was conducted at an isocratic flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. To calculate the MW of the carrageenans, a refractive index increment of 0.115 g/mL was used . For sample preparation, 2 mg of carrageenan were mixed with 1 mL of 0.1 M lithium chloride and treated in a water bath at a temperature of 60 °C until complete dissolution of the sample.