Phytochemical Constituents of Three Species of Marine Macro- Algae from Sitio Usadda, Pangutaran, Sulu, Philippines

Abstract

Seaweeds are a rich source of highly potential bioactive compounds in the pharmaceutical industry. To date, many chemically unique compounds of marine origin with various biological activities have been isolated and some of them are under investigation and to develop new pharmaceuticals. The phytochemical screening will be limited to the determination of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins and terpenoids using two organic solvents such as ethanol and methanol. The result of the phytochemical test proves that there is a difference in the capacity of different solvents to extract active compounds. In methanol extracts tannins and terpenoids are present in Ulva reticulate in moderate amount. Terpenoids are slightly present in Sargassum cristaefolium and terpenoids and saponins are slightly present in Halymenia durvillei. In methanol extracts Ulva reticulata contains coumarins and saponins in moderate amount and terpenoids is only slightly present. Also, the methanol extract of Sargassum cristaefolium and Halymenia durvillei, contain terpenoids in moderate amount. It can be deduced from the screening test that terpenoids is the dominant constituents present in the three algal samples. Both ethanol and methanol seaweed extracts showed that alkaloids, flavonoids and xanthoprotein were absent in the three seaweed extracts of U. reticulata, S. cristaefolium and H. durvillei. An absence of alkaloid in U. reticulata in present study is due to effect of the geographical location and seasons of collection. Differences can be attributed to solubility of active component in different solvents used. Methods of extraction were possible sources of variation for chemical composition and extracted for bioactivity reaction. Indeed, there is no doubt that more terpenoids identified from marine algae will become available and will be used in food industry and will be utilized as source of natural antioxidant and clinical drugs that will play a significant role in human disease treatment in the future.