The Botanica 59-61 : 93 - 95. 2012
Assessment of Pigments of some Marine Algae of Rameshwaram Coast of India Babita Kumari and Vinay Sharma Department of Bioscience & Biotechnology, Banasthali University, Banasthali - 304 022, Rajasthan E-mail :
[email protected]
Marine algae, commonly known as seaweeds, are one of the most important marine organisms used for food, feed and medicine since 21st century. In this study, the most richest pigments found in marine alga were investigated among different species of seaweeds belonging to chlorophyta, rhodophyta and phaeophyta, collected from the coast of Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu, India. During experimental observation, the highest chlorophyll a content was observed in C. racemosa, while the lowest was observed in G. corticata. The concentration of Chlorophyll b was highest in U. fasciata, which further decreases in Gracilaria corticata, similar to chlorophyll a content. The amount of carotenoid was maximum in G. verrucosa, which gradually decreases in Laurencia sp. The order of chlorophyll a content was in order following sequence Chlorophyceae > Phaeophyceae > Rhodophyceae. However, the order of phycoerythrin was summerized in the following sequence Phaeophyceae > Chlorophyceae > Phaeophyceae. The objective of this study was to investigate the variation of pigments among different species of marine algae.
India has a vast coastline which offers many advantages for utilization of marine biological resources including seaweeds. Marine algae are commonly found attached to the bottom in relatively shallow coastal water. They are abundant on hard substratum and commonly extend to depth of 30-40 m. They are generally classified as Chlorophyceae, Rhodophyceace and Phaeophyceae depending on the nature of pigments. Natural pigments are applied widely in many fields for e.g. Chlorophyll in food, cosmetics and medicine. Chlorophyll has many types of phsiological functions such as sterilization and antiulcer action. In addition both Beta-carotene and fucoxanthin are carotenoids, having bioactivity of free radical scavenging (Nishino et al. 1999).The role of photosynthetic pigments including chlorophyll, carotenes and powerful antioxidants has been described by Lewin, 1974). Besides, the composition of photosynthetic pigments in different types of marine algae was described by several workers (Dere et al. 2003, Chakraborty & Santra, 2008).
THE BOTANICA
Collection and Preparation of Samples for pigments analysis The healthy thallus of marine alga was collected in submerged condition near the seashore areas of Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu, India. The thallus was washed thoroughly in the field with natural seawater to remove epiphytes and contaminated particles from the surface of thallus. The thallus was wrapped in adsorbent cotton sprinkled with seawater and kept inside the ice box and transported to the laboratory for pigment analysis. Inside the laboratory, the thallus analysed for three types of pigments: a)
was
Chlorophyll content estimated by Arnon et al. 1949
b) Carotenoid concentration estimated by Parsons and Strickland 1963 c)
Phycoerythrin content estimated Bennett and Bogorad 1973
by
Out of three types of pigments analyzed, the amount of carotenoid was observed to be less
93
Rameshwaram
Fig. 1 : Showing the point of collection of samples from Rameshwaram Coastal area of Tamil Nadu.
than chlorophyll and phycoerythrin content. The chlorophyll a was maximum in chlorophyta as compared to rhodophyta and phaeophyta. The highest chlorophyll content was observed in Caulerapa racemosa (1,04 mg/g), while the lowest chlorophyll content was recorded in G. corticata (0.23mg/gFw). The concentration of chlorophyll b was observed maximum in Ulva fasciata (1.87 mg/g Fw),while lower in Caulerapa racemosa (0.90 mg/g Fw). However, amongst all the three groups, the highest amount of carotenoid was observed in G. corticata. Consequently, the amount of carotenoid decreased in Padina sp. belonging to phaeophyta group. Yang et al. (2008) extracted pigments from L. japonica with six organic solvents, the best yield of pigment was observed in acetone which was similar to present study in the extraction of chlorophyll. Ramus et al. (1976) demonstrated the adaptation of seaweeds to both color and intensity. From this experiment, it was concluded that algae are
Fig. 2 : Images of some seaweeds for pigment analysis.
94
THE BOTANICA
phylogenetically not better adapted to utilize the ambient light at great depths than their green counterparts. The study of phycoerythrin analysis emphasis the highest phycoerythrin content in S. wightii (1.10 mg/g Fw), while the lower value recorded in E. intestinalis (0.27 mg/ g Fw). Phycoerythrin content was found to vary from 1.04 mg/g to Fw in chlorophyta, while in Rhodophyta, the phycoerythrin amount ranges from 0.27 mg/g Fw to 1.00mg/g Fw. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author wants to give a heartfelt thanks to Department of Science and Technology for providing Facilities and support of doing work. REFERENCES Parsons TR and JD Strickland 1963. Discussion of spectrophotometric determination of marine plant pigments with revised equations for ascertaining chlorophyll and carotenoid. J Mar Res 21 : 155 - 163.
THE BOTANICA
Chakraborty SSC Santra 2008. Biochemical composition of eight benthic algae collected from Sunderban. Indian J of Marine Sciences 37 (3) : 329 332. Dere S, N Dalkiran, D Karacaoglu, G Yildiz and E Dere 2003. The determination of total protein , total soluble carbohydrate and pigment contents of some macroalgae collected from Gemlik-Karacaali (Bursa) and Erdek-Ormanli (Balikesir) in the sea of Marmara, Turkey. Oceanologia 45 (3) : 453 - 471. Lewin RA 1974. Biochemical taxonomy. In Algal Phsiology and Biochemistry (Ed. WDP Stewart). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford and London. 989 p. Ramus JS, SI Beale, D Mauzerall and KL Howard 1976. Changes in photosynthetic pigment concentration in Seaweeds as a function of water depth. Mar Biol 37 : 223 - 229. Yang L, LI Pengcheng and FAN Shoujinj 2008. The extraction of pigments from fresh Laminaria japonica. Chinese J of Oceanonology and Limnology 26 (2) : 193 - 196.
95
