SEAWEED EXTRACTS EXHIBIT ANTICANCER ACTIVITY AGAINST HeLa CELL LINES

Objective: This study was conducted to examine the anticancer activities in the extracts of marine seaweeds Gracilariacorticata.Methods: The acetone, chloroform, ethanol, methanol and aqueous extracts of collected seaweeds were tested for their anticancer properties in vitro against HeLa cancer cell lines.Results: The anticancer activity of the seaweed extracts was observed at 24hours, 48 hours and 72 h in which chloroform and ethanol extracts of G. corticata showed a greater activity with an IC50 value of 341.82 µg/ml and 244.7 µg/ml respectively for 48hours. P-values were determined by two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The morphology of the treated cells showed a great variation when compared to the control cells. Thus, the in vitro assay indicates that the extracts of seaweeds are the significant source of a noble anticancer agent.Conclusion: This study also infers that G. corticata could be a potential candidate for cancer therapy in the near future