Antioxidant activity and phytochemical analysis of a few Indian seaweed species

Abstract

507-518Antioxidant activities of crude methanol extracts and fractions of the seaweed species viz. Bryopsis plumosa (BP), Dictyopteris australis (DA) and Gracilaria pudumadamensis (GP) of Indian waters were evaluated and correlated with their phytochemical contents. In DPPH assays the most promising antioxidant sample was the crude methanol extract (BPM), which was comparable with standard antioxidant BHT. In the superoxide radical activity assays no sample in the group was as active as BHT, however the promising ones were DAM, DAE and GPM, GPE, GPH (subscripts M, E and H stand for the respective methanol extracts and their ethyl acetate and hexane fractions). In the Fe2+ chelating activity assays EDTA showed far stronger activity than those of the promising samples. In reducing power assays BPM, BPE, and BPH showed comparable activity with BHT at a concentration 0.5 mg/mL. Thus these seaweed species would be of potential utility as a source of natural antioxidants