Evaluation of Antioxidant, Antimicrobial and Antimutagenic Activity with Irritation Effects of Ceramium Rubrum (Red Algae) Extract

Abstract

Algae are a rare living groups that serve many different uses such as food, pharmacology, agriculture and biofuel and therefore it has been the subject of numerous studies. Although algae have a rich diversity in our country's coasts, they have not received much attention to reveal their potential activities. This study was conducted to evaluate antioxidant, antimutagenic and antimicrobial activities as well as irritation/toxicity efficacy of n-hexane, chloroform and methanol extracts of the red algae Ceramium rubrum C. Agardh. While spectrophotometric methods were used for the determination of total phenol and flavonoid content, antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH assay. Antimicrobial and antimutagenic efficacy of extracts were determined by MIC metod and Ames test, respectively. Also, HET-CAM test was used for irritation/toxicity of extracts. While methanol extract was found to have higher total flavonoid and phenolic contents than the other extracts and hexane showed higher antioxidant activity than other extracts. All extracts exerted moderate antimicrobial activity against tested microorganisms as 64–256 μg/mL. However, extracts of the algae did not show any mutagenicity or irritation effect even at the highest concentration. As a result, C. rubrum can potentially be used with both antioxidant activities and have no toxic effects and its antimicrobial activities can be developed against different sensible organisms.