Antioxidant, Anticancer Activity and Phytochemical Analysis of Green Algae, Chaetomorpha Collected from the Arabian Gulf

Abstract

Seaweeds are a group of marine multicellular algae; the presence of antioxidant phytochemical constituents in Seaweed Chaetomorpha sp. extracts has received attention for their role in the prevention of human diseases. This study explores the phytochemical constituents, antioxidant, and anticancer properties of the Cladophoraceae, Chaetomorpha sp. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were performed to study the chemical structure and chemical formula. Different concentrations of ethanol and aqueous extracts of Chaetomorpha were used to estimate antioxidant activity by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and total flavonoid, phenolic, and tannins content assays. Anti-tumor activity against breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) was assessed by 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-cyl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay. The EDX analysis indicated the presence of oxygen, silicon, and calcium as dominant elements. Antioxidant assays indicated that the ethanol extracts of Chaetomorpha consisted of a total of 189.14 ± 0.99 mg QE/g flavonoid content, 21.92 ± 0.43 mg GAE/g phenolic content and 21.81 ± 0.04 mg GAE/g tannins content. The DPPH radical scavenging assay exhibited higher antioxidant activity IC50 (9.41 ± 0.54 mg/mL) in the ethanol extract. Moreover, it showed high anticancer activity by growth inhibition in the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line and low IC50 (225.18 ± 0.61 µg/mL). GC/MS analysis revealed the presence of Dichloracetic acid (DCA) as the active antitumor constituent of Chaetomorpha sp.; other anticancer compounds identified were Oximes and L-α-Terpinol. The results revealed that the type of Chaetomorpha sp. studied here possesses very unique and novel constituents and active potent antitumor chemical constituents and it can act as a promising antioxidant and anticancer agent for future applications in pharmaceutical industries.

Anti-Hepatocellular-Cancer Activity Exerted by β-Sitosterol and β-Sitosterol-Glucoside from Indigofera zollingeriana Miq

“…Free radicals are highly reactive chemicals that have the potential to inhibit cancer cells, which is one type of antioxidant potential of plant extracts [ 22 , 23 ]. ABTS+ and DPPH assays are widely used to evaluate a compound’s antioxidant potential.…”

Seaweed Phenolics: From Extraction to Applications

“…However, there is a lack on the studies about the flavonoid characterization, isolation, and their specific bioactivity analysis, in the bibliography analyzed. There are only suppositions by the high content of flavonoids present in the sample analyzed and the bioactivity analyzed [ 35 , 78 , 84 , 85 , 86 , 87 ]. From the recent studies using various seaweeds species, the data obtained support the presence of the flavonoid compounds, with various extraction techniques, and these extracts have antioxidant and radical scavenging activity positively correlated with flavonoid concentration [ 12 , 88 , 89 ].…”

Anticancer Potential of Furanocoumarins: Mechanistic and Therapeutic Aspects

“…Oxidative stress is caused by ROS accumulation and high ROS concentration is demanded by cancerous cells. Anticancer phytochemicals with antioxidants properties reduce developing cancer risks [45,99]. Bergamottin, bergaptol, methoxsalen [100], bergapten [101], imperatorin [102], oxypeucedanin [103] and psoralen [104] have been reported to possess antioxidant activities.…”