Total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and tyrosinase inhibitor from marine red algae extract collected from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara

Abstract

Many commercialized synthetic antioxidants are used under strict regulations in certain countries because of their potential health hazards. Thus, the search for alternative antioxidants from natural products Indonesia is needed, and one of the potential material is from seaweed extract. Red seaweed is very potential to be developed as a raw material for medicines and cosmetics because it has antioxidant activity, which from its phenolic compound that can remove the free radicals and can inhibit tyrosinase enzyme activity. The purpose of this research is to know the species of red seaweed in the East Nusa Tenggara sea, its total phenolic content, antioxidant activity, and also inhibitory activity of tyrosinase in red seaweed. conduct the research. Parameters that measured are the number of total phenolic compounds, IC50 that obtain from the DPPH test, and inhibition percentage of Tyrosinase. The result shows that there are ten species of red algae in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, and it consists of 4 genera. Some of that red seaweed species are potential as antioxidant and tyrosinase inhibitors source. The result from total phenolic content analysis show the species that have highest total phenolic content is Laurencia sp. (24.97 mg GAE.g-1), the antioxidant activity test show the species that have highest antioxidant activity is Gelidium latifolium (46.68%), and the species that have the highest percentage inhibition of tyrosinase enzyme is Gracillaria foliifera (25.21%). Moreover, the research also shows a strong correlation between the total phenolic content of the seaweed extract with antioxidant activity. A post-publication change was made to this article on 18 Jun 2020 to correct the title and an author name.