Chemical constituents and biological activities of two Iranian Cystoseira species

Abstract

The marine environment represents approximately half of the global biodiversity and could provide unlimited biological resources for the production of therapeutic drugs. Marine seaweeds comprise few thousands of species representing a considerable part of the littoral biomass. Extracts of the Cystoseira indica and Cystoseira merica were subjected to phytochemical and cytotoxicity evaluation. The amount of total phenol was determined with Folin-Ciocalteu reagent. Cytotoxicity was characterized by IC50 of human cancer cell lines including MCF-7 (human breast adenocarcinoma), HeLa (cervical carcinoma), and HT-29 (human colon adenocarcinoma) using Sulforhodamin assay. Antioxidant activities were evaluated using 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method. The analysis revealed that tannins, saponins, sterols and triterpenes were the most abundant constituents in these Cystoseira species while cyanogenic and cardiac glycosides were the least ones. C. indica had the higher content of total phenolics and also showed higher antioxidant activity. Cytotoxic results showed that both species inhibited cell growth effectively, especially against MCF-7 cell line. The present findings suggest potential pharmacological applications of selected seaweeds but require further investigation and identification of their bioactive principles.

Anti-tuberculosis and cytotoxic evaluation of the seaweed Sargassum boveanum

“…There are numerous reports on their secondary metabolites and biological activities ( 11 ). Their metabolites such as terpenoids have exhibited different biological characteristics such as cytotoxic, antioxidant, vasodilation, and acetylcholine esterase inhibition activities ( 12 13 14 15 ).…”

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“…Analysis of Phytochemicals: Algae has a wide variety of natural pigments like chlorophyll, carotenoids and phycobiliproteins, which exhibit colors ranging from green, yellow, brown and red [39][40][41][42] . The results were corroborated with the previous reports.…”

In vitro antioxidant effects of different extracts obtained from the leaves and seeds of Allium ampeloprasum subsp. persicum

“…Antioxidants are substances which are able to prevent and protect against diseases related to oxidative stress through preventing the free radical formation, scavenging and neutralizing reactive oxygen species, and inhibiting oxidative reactions (2). Therefore, widespread interest has been recently concerned on the evaluation of antioxidant plants and phytochemicals for reducing the risk of various diseases and improving the quality of life (3,4). Allium with around 800 species is an important genus of Amaryllidaceae family which widely spread in the northern hemisphere.…”