Biological activities and biosorption potential of red algae (Corallina officinalis) to remove toxic malachite green dye

Abstract

Abstract This research aims to use eco-friendly Corallina officinalis as an adsorbent for removing harmful malachite green dye streams from industrial effluent, promoting sustainable living and effective microbial growth inhibition. Corallina officinalis biomass was tested for textile dye biosorption, as well as its antibacterial, antioxidant, and cytotoxic properties. The effects of certain parameters, involving pH solution, initial dye concentration, algae dose, and contact time, were investigated on the sorption of dye. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy were also used and, the results showed that the functional groups on the surface of algae played an important part in the biosorption process. It was noted that the kinetic data were significantly prominent by the Pseudo-second-order model with regression correlation coefficient $${r}_{2}^{2}$$ r 2 2 values with an average of 0.95232. The biosorption was compatible with both the Freundlich (R2 = 0.9843), and Langmuir (R2 = 0.9653) isotherms, and the maximum removal efficiency for dye reached up to 99.9% in 2 h, 27 °C, stirring speed 120 rpm, pH 6, initial dye concentration 20 mg L−1, and biomass dose 0.03 g L−1. Corallina officinalis had higher antimicrobial activity, with values of minimum inhibitory concentrations ranging from 0.156 to 5 mg mL−1. Corallina officinalis exerted significant radical scavenging activity against tested free radicals. The extract was examined for cytotoxic activity using nine cancer cell lines, which exhibited high cytotoxicity for colon adenocarcinoma with an IC50 value of 25.895 µg mL−1.