Natural
product drug discovery is an important area which delivers more than 50% of
drug candidates used to treat cancer patients around the world. For the past
several decades, marine algae have been actively analyzed for the presence of
bioactive metabolites with varying degree of success. Here we have subjected
the red algae Kappaphycus alvarezii to
preliminary screening of antioxidant and anticancer activity against breast
cancer cell line MCF-7. Initially, chromatographic techniques showed the
presence of metabolites such as quinones, flavonoids, cardiac glycosides, and
sterols in both the ethanol and chloroform extract of the algae. Both DPPH and
HRAS assays of ethanol and chloroform crude extracts displayed a dose-dependent
increase in radical scavenging from 12.5% to 58.55% respectively. The
chloroform extract of Kappaphycus
alvarezii showed highest antioxidant capacity of all. The in vitro cytotoxicity of EtOH and CHCl3
crude extracts against breast cancer cell line MCF-7 were determined by MTT
assay. While cell viability was inversely proportional to the concentration of
the extract, a maximum of 56% cell inhibition was observed in CHCl3 extract
treated replicates. Since crude extracts exhibit viable levels of antioxidant
as well as cytotoxic properties, it can be safely reasoned that bioactive
compounds finely investigated will reveal, probable lead candidates for
antioxidant and anticancer health supplements.