Phytochemical screening test of marine algae for phamacological active constituents study

Phytochemical screening test was conducted to find out pharmacological active constituents of 4 marine algae groups namely green, red, brown and blue-green algae. 20 samples of marine algae were analyzed be several methods in order to find out 5 kinds of phamacological active constituents which are alkaloid, cardiac glycoside, saponin, flavonoid and coumarin. Screening test was conducted in the central laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture at Bangpra, RIT. Sriracha, Chonburi province during the period of october 1999 to september 2000. The result of phytochemical screening test indicated that, from a total of 20 marine algae samples, 7 of them comprised alkaloid whereas 6, 5, 4 and 4 of them comprised flavonoid, coumarin, cardiac glycoside and saponin, respectively. On the other hand, pharmacological active constituents were not found n 4 marine algae samples which are Neomeris vanbossea, Gracilaria fisheri, Rosenvingea orientalis and Brachytrichia quoyi. The result also showed that, pharmacological active constituents varied widely due to the species of marine algae. From the 5 pharmacological active constituents, cardiac glycoside was found to be major constituent for the green algae, alkaloid for the red algae and coumarin for the brown algae. Cardiac glycoside and coumarin were not detected in the extract of red algae's samples, saponin was not found in the brown algae, whereas no pharmacological active constituent was found in the blue-green algae (Brachytrichia quoyi). Among the marine algae samples in which pharmacological active constituents were detected, the brown algae had greater number of pharmacological active constituents than the green algae, whereas the red algae appeared to contain minimum number of them. This screening test is, therefore, potentially useful in accelerating the drug discovery process in the future.