Investigation on bio-properties and in-vivo antioxidant potential of carrageenans against alloxan induced oxidative stress in Wistar albino rats.

The present investigation was carried out to determine the bio-properties and antioxidant potential of native carrageenan from Kappaphycus alvarezii in comparison with commercial carrageenan under laboratory conditions in Wistar albino rats. In acute toxic study, no toxicity was observed in rats at the dose of 2000 mg/kg of both carrageenans, hence three different doses (500, 750 and 1000 mg/kg) of native and commercial carrageenans were selected individually for in vivo antioxidant study in rats. The result revealed that, in both native and commercial carrageenans tested animals, the antioxidant enzymes CAT (36.31 & 31.65 μmol/mg protein), GPx (5.92& 5.48 μg/min/mg protein), SOD (1.91 & 1.55 μmol/mg protein), GST (3.09 & 2.97 μmol/mg protein), GSH (27.56 & 25.31 μmol/mg protein) and ascorbic acid (3.76 & 2.35 μg/mg protein) levels in the kidney samples of the alloxan induced diabetic rats were elevated, but LPO (3.74 & 4.10 μmol/min/mg protein) level was decreased in the highest concentration (1000 mg/kg) of both native and commercial carrageenans treated groups, when compared to standard glibenclamide treated group and control group. In brine shrimp lethality assay, native carrageenan expressed LCvalue of 160.41 μg/ml, however commercial carrageenan failed to express LC even at 200 μg/ml concentration. Likewise in hemolytic assay, among the tested concentrations (25 to 250 μg/ml) of both carrageenans the highest concentration (250 μg/ml) of the same exhibited 38.31 and 65.75% activity on red blood cells respectively. Native carrageenan also possessed better anti-inflammatory (84.89%) and anticoagulant activity at the highest concentration (500 mg/kg), when compared to commercial carrageenan. Finally both the carrageenans were structurally characterized through UV-Vis, FT-IR, FT-Raman and NMR studies. From the results, it was understood that native carrageenan was considered to be a protective antioxidant and anti-therapeutic agent with biological properties.