IN-VIVO ANTICANCER ACTIVITY OF RED ALGAE (GELIDIELA ACEROSA AND ACANTHOPHORA SPICIFERA)

The Gulf of Mannar, is a unique marine habitat with diverse of macroalgae. Macroalgae are primitive non flowering marine plants, which have rich sources of bioactive compounds (ie, proteins, peptides, amino acid, polysaccharide, alkaloids etc). The selected red algae Gelidiela acerosa and Acanthophora spicifera collected from the Gulf of Mannar, southeast coast of India. In this present study, the anticancer potential of the methanol (crude) extract from G. acerosa and A. spicifera was tested for probable anticancer activity in Dalton's Ascitic Lymphoma (DAL) cells. The cells were tested in Swiss albino mice. The results show that, G. acerosa and A. spicifera algae extract were the most effective against DAL cells in mice respectively had significant anticancer activity and it might be a good candidate for further investigation in order to develop a natural compound as an anticancer agents, which can be utilized for the production of potential anticancer drug and novel pharmaceutical leads.