EVALUATION OF ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF HYPNEA VALENTIAE (RED ALGAE), GULF OF MANNER, RAMESWARAM, TAMIL NADU

Abstract

The present study was to confirm whether different methods show the same sensitivity or capacity to discriminate the antioxidant activity of the different crude extracts of Hypnea valentiae. The crude extracts were analyzed using the following methods; 2, 2-di-phenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, Hydroxyl radical scavenging, Superoxide radical scavenging, ABTS radical scavenging and reducing power assay. The crude extracts of H. valentiae were found to have strong antioxidant properties. The antioxidant activity values quantified through superoxide and ABTS were higher than the ones obtained by DPPH, hydroxyl and reducing power and these values varied among extracts. The results indicated that the methanol extract is the most potent antioxidant. This holds great promise for the use of Hypnea valentiae as a source of strong antioxidant compounds.