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Screening of antioxidant activity in microalgae

Mariana F.G. Assunção1*, Sandrine Da Ressurreição2, Joana D. Ferreira1, Clara B. Martins1, Raquel Amaral1, Sandra Dias Santos2, Lilia M.A. Santos1 and Jorge M.T.B. Varejão2
  • 1 Algoteca de Coimbra (ACOI), Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal
  • 2 Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, ESAC, CERNAS, Bencanta, 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal

Due to the toxicity of synthetic antioxidants, the demand for alternative sources of antioxidants over the years has increased. The interest in such compounds is related to their importance in human health and food quality. Microalgae, a group of organisms with high morphological diversity and able to produce a wide variety of biochemical compounds are considered a promising, non expensive source of antioxidant compounds (Guedes et al., 2013a). This work reports the screening of several different species of microalgae for their antioxidant behavior using the 2,2’-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid radical cation (ABTS•+) spectrophotometric assay for antioxidant activity (Guedes et al., 2013b) to 50 microalgae from the Coimbra Collection of Algae (ACOI). This method is based on the discoloration of a radical solution expressed as a radical inhibition activity. Recorded values obtained varied between 0.19 and 12.31 mg.L1 equivalent ascorbic acid concentration. In order to confirm the results, the initial screening was followed by the application of the ABTS•+ assay and another common method for antioxidant activity namely that using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH•) to 8 selected strains from the first 50 and belonging to different taxonomic groups. The DPPH• method consists on the decrease of absorbance of a solution containing the radical in the presence of antioxidants (Brand-Williams et al., 1994). The results obtained for these 8 strains ranged from 2 to 30 mg.L-1 equivalent ascorbic acid concentration for the ABTS•+ assay and from 7 to 13% inhibition of DPPH•. Both sets of results indicate an interesting antioxidant potential in microalgae belonging to the groups Eustigmatophyceae and Chlorophyceae. Tested species of these groups showed ABTS•+ values comparable to grape and raspberry ethanolic extracts, confirmed also by the DPPH• method.

References

Guedes, A. C., Gião, M. S., Seabra, R., Ferreira, A. C. S., Tamagnini, P., Moradas-Ferreira, P. and Malcata, X. (2013a). Evaluation of the Antioxidant Activity of Cell Extracts from Microalgae. Marine Drugs, 11, 1256-1270.
Guedes, A. C., Amaro, H. M., Gião, M. S. and Malcata, X. (2013b). Optimization of ABTS radical cation assay specifically for determination of antioxidant capacity of intracellular extracts of microalgae and cyanobacteria. Food Chemistry, 138, 638–643.
Brand-Williams, W., Cuvelier, M. E. and Berset, C. (1994). Use of free radical method to evaluate antioxidant activity. Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft & Technologie, 28, 25-30.

Keywords: ACOI, Microalgae, Antioxidants, ABTS, DPPH radical scavengers

Conference: IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2014, Peniche, Portugal, 10 Jul - 11 Jul, 2014.

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Topic: BLUE BIOTECH

Citation: Assunção M, Ressurreição S, Ferreira JD, Martins CB, Amaral R, Santos S, Santos L and Varejão J (2014). Screening of antioxidant activity in microalgae. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2014. doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2014.02.00060

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Received: 08 May 2014; Published Online: 18 Jul 2014.

* Correspondence: Ms. Mariana F.G. Assunção, Algoteca de Coimbra (ACOI), Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal, mariana.f.g.assuncao@gmail.com