Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Antioxidant activities of methanol extract and solvent fractions of marine Macroalga, Avrainvillea erecta (Berkeley) A. Gepp and E.S. Gepp (Dichotomosiphonaceae)

Tsun-Thai Chai¹ , Meng-Tee Kwek², Nor Ismaliza Mohd Ismail^1,3, Jillian Lean Sim Ooi⁴, Affendi Yang Amri⁵, Fazilah Abd Manan⁶, Yew-Chye Law², Fai-Chu Wong^1,2

¹Centre for Biodiversity Research; ²Department of Chemical Science, Faculty of Science; ³Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, 31900 Kampar; ⁴Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Building; ⁵Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur; ⁶Department of Biosciences and Health Sciences, Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

For correspondence:- Tsun-Thai Chai Email: chaitt@utar.edu.my Tel:+6054688888 ext 45

Received: 1 October 2014 Accepted: 9 February 2015 Published: 31 March 2015

Citation: Chai T, Kwek M, Ismail NI, Ooi JL, Amri AY, Manan FA, et al. Antioxidant activities of methanol extract and solvent fractions of marine Macroalga, Avrainvillea erecta (Berkeley) A. Gepp and E.S. Gepp (Dichotomosiphonaceae). Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(3):503-509 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i3.20

© 2015 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To determine the antioxidant activity of methanol extract (ME) and solvent fractions of Avrainvillea erecta as well as their total phenolic and flavonoid contents.

Methods: The antioxidant activities of ME as well as its chloroform, butanol, and aqueous fractions (CF, BF and WF, respectively) of A. erecta were evaluated via 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) scavenging assays as well as ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined spectrophotometrically.

Results: CF and BF possessed equally high DPPH scavenging activity with half-maximal effective concentration (EC₅₀) of 535 and 532 mg/ml, respectively. CF had stronger NO scavenging activity (EC₅₀ 743 µg/mL) than ME and BF, although weaker compared with quercetin (EC₅₀ 279 µg/ml). CF also produced the highest FRAP value (451 µmol Fe²⁺/g) among all samples examined. Notably, H₂O₂ scavenging activity was only found in CF (EC₅₀ 387 µg/ml), which was as strong (p > 0.05) as that of gallic acid (EC₅₀ 456 µg/mL). BF had the highest total phenolic content while CF had the highest total flavonoid content.

Conclusion: CF of A. erecta, which has the highest flavonoid content of all the extracts evaluated, is a potential source of natural antioxidants, especially hydrogen peroxide scavengers.

Keywords: Antioxidant, Avrainvillea erecta, Flavonoid, Macroalga, Phenolic