Chemical characterization of essential oils and antioxidant activity of Dictyota dichotoma and Dictyopteris membranacea

Abstract

The work focuses on the study of two brown algae Dictyota dichotoma and Dictyopteris membranacea. Extracts obtained by different organic solvents (dichloromethane, hexane, acetone, methanol, chloroform) were screened for their DPPH antiradical activity, whereas essential oils obtained by steam distillation were chemically characterized by GC-MS. Steam distillation yielded 0.07 and 0.095% of the essential oils for Dictyota dichotoma and Dictyopteris membranacea, respectively. The chemical screening of the essential oils of Dictyopteris membranacea and Dictyota dichotoma showed similar chemical profiles. Namely, trans-anethole showed to be the main component in both studied oils, yielding 12.28% and 10.70% for Dictyopteris membranacea and Dictyota dichotoma, respectively. Antioxidant activity of extracts was expressed by IC50 values and was in the range 0.375-1.72 mg/ml.

Keywords

• seaweed
• extraction
• essential oil
• antioxidant activity