MICROMORPHOLOGICAL, HISTOLOGICAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF SEAGRASSES CYMODOCEA SERRULATA AND SYRINGODIUM ISOETIFOLIUM OF PALK BAY REGION, TAMILNADU

Abstract

Rapidly expanding scientific knowledge on seagrasses has led to a growing awareness that seagrasses area valuable coastal resource. The present study is aimed to validate the micro-morphometric parameters and phytochemical profiling of two sea grasses Cymodocea serrulata and Syringodium isoetifolium through histochemical localization and molecular analysis. The preliminary phytochemical studies of both the seagrasses explored variety of biologically active compounds such as flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, phenols, tannins, glycosides and coumarin. The micro-morphometric parameters like fiber bundles, air lacunae, branching pattern and hairs in root have significant role in taxonomic identification and delimitation of Cymodocea and Syringodium from other sea grass genera of Palk Bay. The histochemical localization coincided with qualitative phytochemical analysis and also confirmed the sites of production or accumulation of secondary metabolites in the tissues. Antioxidant activity of 88.4 percent was observed in the leaf extract of C. serrulata with the IC50 value of 115.7 μg/ml and 86.3 percent in S. isoetifolium with IC50 value of 122.42 μg/ml. The present findings on the strong antioxidant properties of both the seagrasses significantly correlated with the total phenolic content. The FTIR analysis showed absorption peaks assigned to various functional groups related to flavonoids, phenols and coumaric acid. Further research studies are needed to characterize the phytochemicals of these seagrasses at molecular level using HPLC and GCMS technique and those results can be extrapolated to clinical studies.