Anti-Cancer Potential Of Marine Algae Collected From The Coastal Region Of Rameshwaram.

Natural resources have been used as medicine for the treatment of many diseases. Algae have been used as both food and traditional medicine in many countries. Algae consist of several novel biologically active metabolites having biological activities such as anti-viral, antitumor and anti-inflammatory activities. The aim of present study is to evaluate the anti-cancer properties of different unique marine macro algae against three different cancer cell lines such as Hela, MCF-7 and HepG2 cell lines. Seven different species of marine algae named as MA1, MA2, MA3, MA4, MA5, MA6 and MA7 were collected from the coastal region surrounding Rameswaram in Tamilnadu. Different concentrations of the methanolic extracts of these algae were initially screened for cytotoxicity on the cell lines by MTT assay. One of the algal extracts (MA1) exhibited maximum cytotoxicity against all the tested cancer cell lines. The extract from this algal strain was taken up for purification by TLC using different solvent combinations. Further, anticancer activity was analysed by various in-vitro assays and purification of the bioactive compound by chromatography technique was performed. The Algal isolate exhibited great promise as potential candidate for purification and characterization studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]