Chemical and Biological Properties of Sodium Alginates Isolated from Tow Brown Algae <i>Dictyopteris Membranaceae</i> and <i>Padina Pavonica</i>

Abstract

Polysaccharides are known to have interesting biological activities. To date polysaccharides extracted from Tunisian seaweed have not been fully studied. In this paper we tried to isolate sodium alginate from two brown algae and evaluate their biological activities. Two brown seaweeds Dictyopteris membranaceae and Padina pavonica were treated with selective solvents to extract sodium alginate. Analyses were performed to determine their IR spectra, uronic acid’s content and biological properties (antioxidant and gastroprotective activities). Results showed that sodium alginate extracted from D. membranaceae contained 65% of uronic acid while this extracted from P. pavonica contained only 9% of uronic acid. These polysaccharides showed also variation in the structure and the activities. Sodium alginate extracted from D. membranaceae had the highest antioxidant activity with ED50 of 20µg/ml in the DPPH test. Additionally, this polysaccharide had the most important gastroprotective activity with a percent of 97% at dose 50mg/kg. Our finding suggested that sodium alginates extracted from D. membranaceae and P. pavonica could be used as a natural source of antioxidant and gastroprotective agents.