Like seaweed plants that reproduce and colonise up and down coastlines, this private company is branching out into a variety of international fields.

Its high grade fucoidans can be sold for thousands of dollars a kilogram, bought by companies in the nutrition, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and research markets.

For example its highest grade fucoidans are currently being used in human clinical cancer research trials in Texas, where they are being tested as a complementary therapy taken alongside chemotherapy.

Other of its fucoidan extracts are used in products ranging from nasal sprays that take advantage of its antiviral properties, and vitamin capsules that promote immune boosts, to powders that help arthritis in dogs and treatments for gastric ulcers in horses.

Yet in Tasmania Marinova is often just known as "that seaweed company", or possibly not at all.

Marinova managing director Paul Garrott said the company is better known in Asia, North America and Europe than it is in Australia.

"We put Tasmania on the map as being a viable destination for true, high-value added manufacturing … we are not talking about selling a commodity for a few hundred dollars a tonne, we are talking about selling a product that sells for thousands of dollars a kilogram," Mr Garrott said.

"A lot of people don't know about us and they don't know what goes on in our laboratories."

The laboratories sit in a redeveloped industrial area about five minutes’ drive from the Hobart International Airport.

This is where the company's patented process of extracting high-grade fucoidan, without solvents, from locally harvested undaria or wakame seaweed and the imported fucus bladderwreck species occur.

Fucoidans are the focus.

Found in the gel-like substance that exists on the leaves of every brown seaweed species, fucoidans are biological compounds found to contain anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, immunity and gut boosting properties.

Their natural function is to protect the seaweed from bacteria and other viruses that exist in the ocean, and each species has a unique fucodian with different biological activities.

It is these natural functions that Marinova is exploiting for the eventual benefit of humans and animals.

Marinova's story began in the 1990s when the state government issued it a licence to harvest wakame along Tasmania's East Coast.

The species was introduced a decader earlier, by woodchip vessels docking at Triabunna, and was viewed by the state and federal governments as a noxious pest.

"The vessels discharged their bilgewater, which essentially held the reproductive spores of this particular species of seaweed, and it started reproducing along the East Coast,” Mr Garrott said.

The species has also wildly colonised in Patagonia, in South America, and parts of Europe and the US, and is also farmed for mostly food purposes in China, Korea and Japan.

Mr Garrott said the latter products are of inferior quality to that harvested or imported by Marinova, and would not be suitable for medical pharmaceutical purposes.

"Generally speaking the quality of the water [in Asia] leads to quality issues in the seaweed, which has the propensity to absorb contaminants such as heavy metals," Mr Garrott said.

"What sets Marinova apart from the competition is that we only use wild and hand-harvested, certified-organic seaweeds ... We are very fortunate that there are really only one or two locations in the world where this wakame grows wild and free from contamination."

Each year, around November, the company harvests up to 200 tonnes of the annual-growing wakame from the East Coast, depending on the season.

The plants are harvested near the end of their lifecycle, at a point when they have their highest fucoidan content, and taken to the Marinova laboratories to be air-dried.

Here the fucoidan is extracted to create the biological powders that are then sold to companies for use in their products.

"In the early days we sought to commercialise the wakame as a food ingredient. We soon realised that the costs of engaging commercial divers to harvest the seaweed for food was not going to be viable," Mr Garrott said.

"So we investigated some higher-value opportunities ... we knew there was a significant body of evidence to support the biological activity of fucoidan, what we didn't know was how much fucoidan was in the plant or how to extract it.”

Once the patented extraction method was identified, and the company incorporated in 2003, they produced their first nutritional supplement.

Mr Garrott said a lucrative contract dealing with this supplement produced a cash flow to invest in research and development, and the company has since engaged with multiple international universities and research institutions.

He said this research ensures they have the evidence to support the stated benefits of fucoidan.

At any point in time Marinova has eight or 10 research projects under way.

Its chief-scientist Helen Fitton, who helped develop the company's certified organic fucoidan extracts, has worked with the company since its inception, back when it was still operating from a three-person office in Hobart.

As she briefly conveys information about the various fucodian studies, her life's work with seaweed becomes evident.

"Within animal models and in vitro studies fucoidan seems to have had some remarkable anticancer effects. It may stop cancer cells from moving into a reproductive phase and it also appears to support some chemotherapies, where fucoidan adds to the [chemotherapy] activities,” Dr Fitton said.

Studies have looked at bowel, lung, liver, breast, prostate and other cancers, and have shown that fucoidan may slow tumour growth, enhance the effects of conventional cancer therapies, and can reduce the side effects of chemotherapy.

She said other research on animals has shown that orally ingested fucoidan reduced breast cancer tumour growth by up to 26 per cent when taken with chemotherapy, reduced cervical cancer growth by up to 70 per cent, and ovarian cancer growth up to 33 per cent in mice.

Mr Garrott said the use of fucoidan as a complementary health therapy had been recognised in Asia for decades.

"We know ... from folklore and traditional medicine that both seaweed and fucoidans have been used for a long time,” he said.

“In Japan and Korea oncologists have recommend fucoidan to their patients for some time but there isn't that same appreciation in the West. It is for that reason we are undertaking these studies, to confirm that there are no adverse interactions between fucoidans and conventional medicines."

Dr Fitton further explained that at a basic level, fucoidan ingestion can help to boost the immune system.

"If one eats fucoidan it may lead to a greater number of stem cells circulating, which gives a boost to your immune cells. If you go for lots of runs, this tends to happen as well."

She said fucoidan had also been shown to reduce scarring and increase healing after brain injury, where an RMIT University animal study exploited the anti-inflammatory properties of fucodian by making a special gel from it.

"They put the gels into animal brain injuries and this stopped the scarring that occurred but also offered support for cell repair, so it is a fantastic and promising biomaterial technology that was used to reduce scar tissue after brain injury in animals.”

It has also been found to be beneficial for allergy, and influenza and the herpes viruses.

Mr Garrott stressed that the company did not sell fucoidans directly to the public, and instead produced the bio-active compounds to sell to companies for use in their products.