Investigating the bioactive compounds obtained from six seaweeds for food and medical applications

Abstract

Seaweeds are marine macroalgae has excellent bioactive compounds with biological and pharmacological activities has increased drastically from researchers, food and pharmaceutical companies in the area of medical fields. The diverse, safe and durable natural based antioxidant, antimicrobial agents is gradually gaining attention in recent years to conquer the negative impacts caused by synthetic agents in medical industries. This study investigated the various bioactive compounds present in red, green and brown seaweeds used for medical applications. The preliminary screenings of 15 different bioactive compounds of the six seaweeds were analysed using methanol extracts under the standard qualitative conditions.The extracts from six seaweeds were tested under In vitro conditions, for the minimum inhibitory (MIC), fungicidal (MFC) and bactericidal (MBC) concentrations. The values for the MIC against Klebsiella Pneumoniae bacteria were 250 mg/ml, while the MIC against Candida albicans fungi ranged from 62.5 mg/ml to 250 mg/ml. The MBC of the seaweeds ranged from 250 mg/ml to 1000mg/ml, and the MFC ranged from 250 mg/ml to 1000 mg/ml. Besides, the total antioxidant activity and DPPH radical scavenging assays were also analysed. Among the five different concentrations of the seaweed extracts, 250 µg/ml showed maximum antioxidant activity than the rest of the concentrations studied. During this analysis, the Acanthophora spicifera extracts, showed remarkably higher scavenging activity of 77±0.17% inhibition compared with other seaweed extracts.