Antinociceptive activity of Sargassum polyceratium and the isolation of its chemical components

Abstract

Marine algae have been the focus of important studies over the past fifty years, with a considerablenumber of components important to chemists and taxonomists having been isolated and characterized.The scientific data available on Sargassum polyceratium are extremely limited. The objective of the presentstudy was to evaluate the antinociceptive activity of an ethanol extract of S. polyceratium and to isolateits components. Intraperitoneal treatment with ethanol extract of S. polyceratium reduced the numberof acetic acid-induced writhes and the amount of time spent in paw-licking in the second phase of theformalin test. Ethanol extract of S. polyceratium also reduced the amount of time spent in paw-lickingin the glutamate test; however, there was no difference in the reaction time in the hot plate test atany of the doses tested. The chemical components isolated from ethanol extract of S. polyceratium wereidentified using one- and two-dimensional spectroscopic methods such as infrared spectroscopy, massspectrometry and1H and13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The analytical results were alsocompared with data obtained in the literature. The following porphyrin derivatives were isolated fromS. polyceratium: 132-hydroxy-(132-R)-pheophytin-a, 132-hydroxy-(132-S)-pheophytin-a, pheophytin-a,and the steroid fucosterol. The present results indicate that the ethanol extract of S. polyceratium hasantinociceptive activity. In addition, four new substances were isolated from the species evaluated.