Cytotoxic Activity of Enteromorpha intestinalis Extracts against Tumor Cell-Line HeLa

Abstract

Two extracts (methanol and hexan) were extracted from green algae  Enteromorpha intestinalis which is isolated from Basra / Iraq, the cytotoxic activity of these extracts were evaluated by using MTT assay on HeLa cells in vitro , according to the results both extracts are effectiveness on cancer cells with the superiority of methanol extract , the IC₅₀ of methanol extract was 79.08µg/ml and 156.3µg/ml for hexan extract . Also during the current study a number of cytotoxic compounds were isolated from both algal extracts according to the chemical analysis results by using Gc mass technique , these compounds are loliolide , palmitic acid , ethyl palmitate , phytol and squalene from methanol extract while the hexane extract contains palmitic acid , ethyl palmitate and dibutyl phthalate.

Keywords : Enteromorpha intestinalis , cytotoxic activity, HeLa cells