In vitro antiplasmodial activity of methanolic extracts from seaweeds of South West Coast of India

OBJECTIVE: To identify the in vitro antiplasmodial activity of seaweed plants against Plasmodium falciparumstrains. METHODS: A total of eight seaweeds were collected from Kanyakumari district, Tamilnadu, India. The in vitro antiplasmodial activity was performed in 96 well plates against Plasmodium falciparum, and preliminary phytochemcial analysis were performed for the extracts. RESULTS: Of the selected plants Enteromorpha intestinalis (2.61%) showed maximum percentage of extraction. The minimum concentration of inhibitory (IC50) value was observed with Chaetomorpha antennina [(26.37±4.14) μg/mL] further, the positive controls such as chloroquine and artemether showed antiplasmodial activities (IC50) with (19.10±5.93) and (6.03±0.21) μg/mL concentrations, respectively. The preliminary phytochemical analysis of the seaweed extracts showed a variety of phytochemical constituents such as carboxylic acids, phenols, protein, resins, steroids and sugars. CONCLUSIONS: The antiplasmodial activity of the seaweed extract might due to the presence of sugars and phenolic compounds. From the present findings, it is concluded that, the seaweed extract of Chaetomorpha antennina can be further used as a putative antiplasmodial drugs in near future.