In vitro antioxidant and antiproliferative activity of crude fucoidan from Sargassum species

Fucoidans are sulfated heteropolysaccharides majorly composed of L-fucose commonly present in brown algae and some marine invertebrates. Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and the current treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs has a major disadvantage of causing various toxic side effects. Fucoidan was reported to have various biological activities including anticancer activity. In this study, polysaccharide fraction was extracted from the brown algae Sargassum species followed by its fractionation using anion exchange chromatography. FTIR spectroscopy was used for the characterization of fucoidan in comparison with the commercially available fucoidan. The antioxidant activity of crude fucoidan was determined using DPPH, hydroxyl radical and superoxide anion radical scavenging assay. MTT assay was used to determine the cell reducing capacity of the crude fucoidan against cervical cancer cells (HeLa cells) with paclitaxel as the standard chemotherapeutic drug control. The IC50 value of crude fucoidan in HeLa and HEK cells were found to be 24 & 36 μg/ml and IC50 of Paclitaxel was 30 & 20 nM. Fucoidan was reported to get accumulated in the kidneys due to less bioavailability. Hence, further studies has to be done to increase the bioavailability of fucoidan to enhance the cell reducing capacity.