Chlorella vulgaris and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: Effective Antioxidant, Antibacterial and Anticancer Mediators

Abstract

Jayshree, et al.: Microalgae: Effective Health MediatorsAlgae are rich sources of structurally novel and biologically active metabolites. Primary and secondary metabolites produced by these organisms have drawn interest of the pharmaceutical industries. In this regard we have put forth an investigation to evaluate phenolic and flavonoid content in methanol extract of fresh algal biomass followed by antioxidant, antimicrobial and anticancer activities. Determination of total phenol and flavonoid content was followed by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radicals scavenging, phosphomolybdate and reducing power assay for evaluating antioxidant potency. Agar well diffusion method for antibacterial activity and trypan blue test along with MTT assay was done for anticancer activity. Among two microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris had efficiently high amount of total phenol and flavonoid content. Chlorella vulgaris is a single-celled eukaryotic green micro algae, known to be first form of a plant with a well-defined nucleus emerged over 2 billion years ago [1] . Chlorella contains the highest amount of chlorophyll of any known plant. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, another unicellular algae though not much explored as nutrient supplement; it is well known model organism with its three genomes (nuclear, plastidial and mitochondrial) completely sequenced [2] . It finds its application mostly in molecular biology especially in studies involving flagellar motility, chloroplast dynamics, biogenesis and genetics [3] . C. vulgaris is well determined nutrientdense superfood containing 60% protein, 18 amino acids, 20 vitamins and minerals like iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium and phosphorous [4] . One of its unique properties is a phytonutrient called Chlorella Growth Factor [1] . These two microalgae are known for high volume production of β-carotene.Besides being food supplements microalgae, Chlorella sp., Chlamydomonas sp. have been proved to have antibacterial activity in vitro against both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria [5] . The production of extracellular antibiotic metabolites by marine algae has been well studied in recent years. They are also been reported that a wide range of antifungal activities were obtained from extracts of green microalgae [6] . Eventually, microalgae are almost an untapped resource of natural antioxidants due to their enormous biodiversity, much more diverse than higher plants. They contain various biologically active compounds that are been used as source of food, feed and medicine [7] . Microalgae are

Investigation of nutraceutical potential of the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris and Arthrospira platensis

“…Other authors (Maadane et al, 2015) have compared different microalgae species and found that Chlorella is not very rich in polyphenols. Nonetheless, a recent study (Jayshree et al, 2016) on C. vulgaris has found a total phenol content in its methanolic extract, 220 mg GAE per 100 g dw, not very different of the values reported in the present study. On the other hand, Arthrospira sp.…”

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“…The reducing power assay does not require free radicals instead reduce the ferricyanide (Fe +3 ) to ferrocyanide (Fe +2 ) (Habashy et al, 2018). The Increasing absorbance in reducing power assay indicated the increasing reducing power (Jayshree et al, 2016). In this study ascorbic acid, methanol, butanol, benzene and hexane showed absorbance viz., 2.98 nm, 1.57 nm, 1.11 nm, 0.96 nm and 1.20 nm respectively at higher concentration (150 µg/ml) in the reducing power assay while at the lowest concentration (25 µg/ml) the same was recorded as 0.48 nm, 0.54 nm, 0.28 nm, 0.14 nm and 0.32 nm respectively.…”

“…In the phosphomolybdate assay the antioxidants reduce Mo (VI) to Mo (V) forming a green phosphate/Mo complex with absorption maxima at 965 nm (Jayshree et al, 2016;Dutta and Ray, 2020). The percentage scavenging activity in phosphomolybdenum assay increased with increase in concentrations and maximum activity was recorded at the highest concentration (150µg/ml) in this study and highest antioxidant activity was shown by the lowest IC 50 value.…”

Correlating the Anti – Aging Activity with the Bioactive Profile of Chlorella emersonii KJ725233; Its Toxicological Studies for a Potential use in Cosmeceuticals

“…34 The total flavonoid content of the methanolic extract of C.emersonii KJ725233 was determined by the aluminium trichloride method and was found to be 14.26±1.31 mg QE/g dried biomass i.e 158.09±0.23 mg QE/g dried extract which is 20.54% higher as compared to that of 131.15 mg QE/g dried extract of C.vulgaris. 35 The coefficient of correlation for DPPH radical scavenging potential and total flavonoid content was found to be 0.9971 signifying the contribution of flavonoids to the radical scavenging potential of the methanolic extract of C.emersonii KJ725233.…”