Phytochemical evaluation of marine algae from various coastal regions of Tamil Nadu, India for beneficial bioactive compounds

Abstract

Characterization of phytochemicals from the marine algae provides the development of new drugs against disease-causing agents. Lately, researchers have described the marine algae for its sources like minerals, bioactive compounds, and vitamins, which could be used for animals as well as humans for their health care applications. In the present study, the marine diatom of Skeletonema costatum, marine macro algae such as Ulva fasciata and Kappaphycus alvarezii were collected from the different coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and screened for phytochemicals. The marine diatom S.costatum was mass cultured, shade dried, then the macro algae also shade dried and later used for extraction using ethyl acetate. The shade dried algal powders and crude extracts were used for phytochemical analysis through SEM-EDAX and TLC methods. SEM-EDAX analysis has shown the total elemental profiles such as C, O, Na, Mg, Si, Cl, K,Ca, etc from each alga whereas, the TLC methods have exposed the various non-volatile compounds such as Rf value of 0.02 to 0.98 from the marine algae. Based on these analyses, it could be concluded that the marine algae of S.costatum, U. fasciata and K. alvarezii have exhibited its various bioactive compounds, which may be useful for animal and human health care products, especially against pathogenic diseases.