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Powdered tissue from 46 species of air-dried marine algae (four green, 21 brown and 21 red algae) were screened for antitumor activity . Significant activity against Ehrlich carcinoma was found in the brown algae Scytosiphon lomentaria (69.8 % inhibition), Lessonia nigrescens (60 .0 %), Laminaria japonica (57.6 %), Sargassum ringgoldianum (46.5%), the red algae Porphyra yezoensis (53 .2%) and Eucheuma gelatinae (52.1 %) and the green alga Enteromorpha prolifera (51 .7 %) . Five brown and four red algae showed appreciable antitumor activity against Meth-A fibrosarcoma . To identify specific molecules with antitumor activity, 15 kinds of polysaccharide preparations of seaweed origin and 24 kinds of lipid fractions extracted from various seaweeds were tested . Appreciable inhibition of Ehrlich carcinoma was found for fucoidan preparations from Undaria pinnatifida and Sargassum ringgoldianum, for carrageenans and for porphyran . Several glycolipid and phospholipid fractions from brown and red algae were effective against Meth-A fibrosarcoma.

For elucidation of the entity of antitumour activity of marine algae, 17 kinds of polysaccharide preparations of seaweed origin and 24 kinds of lipid fractions extracted from various seaweeds were selected as experimental material in addition to pectin. Mice implanted with Ehrlich car cinoma and Meth A fibrosarcoma were used as assay animal. Appreciable inhibition of tumour growth was found for fucoidan preparations form Undaria pinnatifida and Sargassum ringgoldianum, carrageenans and porphyran, being 51.7-54.5, 78.1, 40.1-54.0, and 45.3-58.4 %, respectively. The antitumour activities of lipid fractions against Meth A fibrosarcoma were found to be 36.1-47.1% with all the 3 fractions from S. ringgoldianum, and those of glycolipid and phospholipid fractions from L. angustata were as high as 45.9 and 58.0%, the latter of which was obtained from nearly 1/6 amount of injection. Phospholipid fraction from P. yezoensis showed very high activity such as 64.0% which was the value at the injection of nearly the same amounts as above, and it was the highest value among all the fractions tested in this work.

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