Abstract
Objectives
Sargassum (S) species, a marine brown alga consumed in Asian countries, have various health benefits, such as improving the conditions of cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, and hypopigmentation. And these benefits are associated with their strong antioxidant capacities. However, antioxidant capacities of S. species have not been thoroughly explored and compared. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the antioxidant capacities of eleven S. species grown off the Korean coast.
Methods
Ethanol extracts of eleven S. Species (S. hemiphyllum, S. coreanum, S. horneri, S. Confusum, S. siliquastrum, S. miyabei, S. Serratifolium, S. filicinum, S. Micracanthum, S. macrocarpum, and S. yendoi) provided by National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea were evaporated. The powdered samples were dissolved in 80% methanol as 100 mg/L to measure ABTS, DPPH, and superoxide radical scavenging activities. For the ABTS and DPPH radical scavenging capacities, the antioxidant capacities were expressed as mg vitamin C equivalent antioxidant capacity (VCEAC)/100 mg. For the superoxide radical scavenging capacity, inhibition rate of superoxide radical generation (%) was calculated.
Results
Among eleven species, four showed notable radical scavenging capacities including S. miyabei, S. hemiphyllum, S. filicinum, and S. serratifolium. For DPPH radical scavenging capacity, S. miyabei showed the greatest antioxidant capacity (193.6 mg VCEAC/100 mg) followed by S. hemiphyllum, (137.9), S. filicinum (78.2), and S. serratifolium (75.4). For ABTS radical scavenging capacity, S. hemiphyllum showed the greatest capacity as 205.7 mg VCEAC/100 mg followed by S. miyabei (186.2), S. filicinum (140.1), and S. serratifolium (99.5). S. hemiphyllum inhibited about 52% of superoxide radical generation followed by S. miyabei (43.7%), S. filicinum (40.4%) and S. serratifolium (34.8%). Vitamin C as positive control inhibited 34.7% of superoxide radical generation.
Conclusions
Our results exhibited that various S. species showed different antioxidant capacities, indicating the different compositions and proportions of antioxidant compounds in the species. Therefore, further study is warranted to investigate bioactive compounds of the S. species based on our screening.
Funding Sources
This research was supported by the Pukyong National University Research Fund (2018).