Anticancer Benefit of Sargassum horneri Extract

Sargassum horneri is an alga which can be seen in many coasts in Japan. And for this reason, it is expected to be more utilized as food. However, consumption of this alga has been very limited. The purpose of this study is to bear out the anticancer effect of extracts from Sargassum horneri, both in vivo and in vitro. Doses of extracts were done on Meth-A tumor bearing BALB/c female mice by injection and oral administration. In vitro studies were also done on Meth-A cell line using WST-1 dye reduction assay and trypan blue dye excursion method. Hot water extractive from Sargassum horneri showed a notable Meth-A tumor growth suppression, while the suppression by ethanol extractive was poor. The hot water extract also suppressed growth of the Meth-A cell line. Suppression was in part considered to be the result of apoptosis induced by sulfuric polysaccharide. The suppression effect was almost comparable to the well known fucoidan obtained from F. vesiculosus. We concluded that Sargassum horneri must be one of the most health beneficial edible algae especially for anticancer purpose.