In this study, antioxidant and anticancer activities of methanolic extracts from newly isolated freshwater microalgae were investigated. First, four microalgal strains in Korea were identified as Mychonastes sp. 246, Mychonastes sp. 247, Mychonastes p...
In this study, antioxidant and anticancer activities of methanolic extracts from newly isolated freshwater microalgae were investigated. First, four microalgal strains in Korea were identified as Mychonastes sp. 246, Mychonastes sp. 247, Mychonastes pushpae 248, and Mychonastes sp. 249 through 5.8S-ITS2 gene sequencing and their carotenoid contents were analyzed. Then, we accessed antioxidant and anticancer activities of microalgal methanolic extracts by DPPH radical scavenging and CCK-8 assay, respectively. We found that the genus Mychonastes contained 226~2,607 ㎎/g, 138~1,594 ㎎/g, and 126~339 ㎎/g of b-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, respectively. All of the microalgal extracts showed increased antioxidant and anticancer activities in a dose-dependent manner. Antioxidant activities of the extracts were 31±7%, 27±8%, 23±7%, and 17±8%, respectively, when treated with 50 ㎎/mL. In addition, the microalgal extracts could effectively inhibit growth of all tested A549, BxPC-3, HepG2, and SKOV-3 cancer cells ranged from 16% to 62% when treated with 200 ㎎/mL. These results indicated the methanolic extract of four strain of genus Mychonastes could be used as a potential natural material as pharmaceutical ingredients.