Yellow dwarf of potatoes.

Abstract

The ocean provides a plethora of structurally-diverse bioactive compounds that are potential candidates for drug development. Marine sponges have been studied over the past decades and have been found to be a rich source of these bioactive chemicals. This study is focused on the antioxidant properties of marine sponges collected from Mauritius waters. A total of 141 extracts derived from 47 marine sponges from Mauritius waters were tested for their antioxidant property, using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assay and ferric reducing antioxidant potential assay (FRAP). Additionally, their total phenolic content was determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The methanol extract of Axinella donnani (ADM) displayed the highest DPPH activity (92.15 ± 0.09%), whilst the ethyl acetate extract of Pseudosuberites sp. showed the highest FRAP activity (10.57 ± 0.39 mm Fe2+/g of extract). A significant correlation between antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content for methanol/butanol extracts were found.