Phytochemical Screening and antioxidant activity of Chlorella vulgaris

Abstract

Microalgae are rich sources of structurally novel and biologically activemetabolites. Primary and secondary metabolites produced by theseorganisms which have drawn interest of the pharmaceutical industries.In this regard, the study aimed to screening of phytochemicalcompounds and evaluate the total phenolic content and the antioxidantactivity of Chlorella vulgaris. The antioxidant activity of C. vulgariswas tested by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl DPPH radical scavengingmethod, reducing power assay and the total antioxidant capacity (TAC).The phytochemical screening exhibited the presence of alkaloids,flavonoids and phenols in all tested solvents which exhibited severalbiological activities. Among the different solvents, acetone extractexhibited the highest scavenging activity with (50.81%). Also, showedreducing power activity estimated with 1.95 mg AAE/g DW andantioxidant capacity recorded 2.58 mg AAE/g DW. In addition,considerable amount of the total phenolic has been detected in acetoneextract recording 3.17 mg GAE/g DW. The results revealed that there isa strong correlation between the antioxidant activity assays and thephenolic content of Chlorella vulgaris.Thus, the green microalga Chlorella vulgaris in dietary supplements willbe effective mediator in scavenging free radicals as it contains widevariety of bioactive compounds.