Assessment of antioxidant capacity of Cystosphaera jacquinotii (Fucales, Ochrophyta) by two methods: DPPH and CUPRAC.

The present work was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant activity of Cystosphaera jacquinotii and to quantify its total phenolic content (TPC), compared with other fucal, Ericaria amentacea . Phenolic compounds occur in high quantities in brown algae and they have an essential paper in antioxidative action. Extracts were prepared with methanol dilution. The quantification methods used for the determination of the antioxidant capacity were CUPRAC and DPPH. From the obtained results it can be concluded that Cystosphaera jacquinotii presents a high TPC, which directly contributes to the strong antioxidant activity detected, even higher than Ericaria amentacea . Besides, this work evidences that the kinetics of the extracts in DPPH assays is a markedly variable factor that must be considered to assess the antioxidant capacity of seaweeds species. Furthermore, standardized extraction methods and antioxidant activity analyses are needed to properly compare data and get the optimal ones. In the same way, more studies on the role of different compounds in antioxidant activity are wanting, which will help to get the best performance.