Astaxanthin Level of Dominant Mangrove Floral Species in Indian Sundarbans

Abstract

The astaxanthin level in the leaves of five dominant mangrove species, sampled from two different stations of Sager Island in western Indian Sundarbans region was studied during April, 2016. The two sampling stations selected at the northern and southern tips of the island exhibited drastic variation with respect to aquatic salinity, although other parameters like surface water temperature, pH, D.O. and nutrients were more or less uniform. Relatively higher astaxanthin level was observed in the high saline zone (southern tip) of the island, which indicates the regulation of astaxanthin level in the mangrove plants by ambient aquatic salinity. The inundated leaves of the selected mangrove plants showed more astaxanthin level in comparison to the exposed ones. The astaxanthin content of the mangrove leaves was in the order Heritiera fomes > Avicennia alba > Avicennia marina > Avicennia officinalis > Sonneratia apetala in both the sampling stations which points towards the species specificity of the carotenoid pigment.

Identification of pigment profiles and antioxidant activity of Rhizophora mucronata mangrove leaves origin Lembeh, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

“…Previous studies also showed that mangroves contain unique pigments which may serve nutraceutical and pharmaceutical functions (Banerjee et al 2017). One of the mangroves has the potential to use its pigment content such as Rhizophora mucronata (Pringgenies et al 2018).…”