Determination of antimicrobial activities and DNA protection properties of Scytosiphon lomentaria extracts

Scytosiphon lomentaria is a brown algae that has many promising biological activities in medicine as well as being consumed as food in many countries. This study aims to investigate the antimicrobial, antimutagenic and DNA damage protective activity of S. lomentaria by obtaining hexane, methanol and water extracts. To evaluate the antimicrobial effect of the extracts, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) tests were performed on both yeasts and bacteria. The antimutagenic activities of the extracts were investigated by the Ames test, and their protective effects against oxidative DNA damage were investigated by agarose gel electrophoresis using pBR322 plasmid DNA. Antimicrobial results showed that hexane methanol and aqueous extract were more effective on Candia albicans (5, 2.5 and 2.5 mg/mL, respectively) compared to all strains used. All concentrations of the methanol extract exhibited strong antimutagenicity (more than 40% inhibition) on both TA98 and TA100 mutant strains. It was determined that the extracts protected DNA against oxidative DNA damage. The results show that S. lomentaria extracts have antimicrobial activity and DNA protection properties, making them have the potential to be evaluated as new natural resources that can be used in antimicrobial and anticancer formulations.