By Priti Naik
In newfound research on anti-cancer activity, researchers have found scientific evidence in the ethyl acetate fraction of Halodule Uninervis. This is a species of seagrass found in the coastal region of Mandapam, close to Rameswaram in southern Tamil Nadu. The first of its kind study was aimed to evaluate the in-vitro anti-cancer activity of ethyl acetate fraction of this seagrass species against various human cancer cell lines that includes malignant melanoma, lung, cervix, carcinoma and colorectal cancers.
The latest issue of International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research published this research by confirming the anti-cancer activity in the chemically processed Halodule uninervis. The study was done by a team of researchers, comprising Perumal Parthasarathy and Arthanari Umamaheswari, of the Department of Biology and Plant Biotechnology, Presidency College, and Ravichandran Banupriya and Sanniyasi Elumalai of the Department of Biotechnology, University of Madras.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), the deaths due to cancer were higher in developed countries than in developing countries. In 2050, the number of new cases was estimated to increase by 24 million and the number of cancer-related deaths by 17 million worldwide. As much as 60% of the drugs used for cancer treatment were derived from natural products.
Dr.Elumalai said that the seagrass is one of the groups of marine angiosperms that often lives entirely submerged and can complete their life cycle in a coastal environment. In traditional medicine, seagrass has frequently been used for a variety of therapeutic purposes such as wound-healing, fever, stomach aches, muscle pains and skin diseases. In addition, they have been used in biomedical applications such as anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral activities.
Further, he added that thespecies of seagrass, collected from the Mandapam coastal region, was authenticated by the Botanical Survey of India’s Southern Regional Centre, Coimbatore. The collected seagrass was washed well with running water and then by distilled water. It was allowed to be shade-dried and powdered in a grinder. The powder was then fractionated with ethyl acetate by gentle mixing on a shaker for 72 hours. The ethyl acetate fraction of Halodule uninervis was put through qualitative phytochemical screening, quantitative phytochemical analysis and in-vitro anti-cancer activity, besides other chemical processes.
Halodule uninervis could generate phytoconstituents, including phenols, flavonoids, tannins, steroids and alkaloids, which are reported to possess promising biological applications, including anti-bacterial and anti-diabetic activities.
