Growth Characteristics, Bio-chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activities of Benthic Diatom Grammatophora marina from Jeju Coast, Korea

Benthic diatoms are known as a good food for shellfish in nature and in commercial hatchery of Jeju Island, Korea. Grammatophora marina is commonly found as dominant benthic micro-algae in Jeju coastal waters throughout the year. To know the best growth conditions of this species, culture was done in terms of three parameters; water temperature, salinity and nutrients. Each parameter was controlled by temperature of 15, 20 and 25°C; salinity of 25, 30 and 35 psu; and nutrient concentrations of 50, 100 and 200%. F/2 media was used with artificial seawater for the culture, which was continued for two weeks with L:D cycle 12:12 by using fluorescent light. Maximum specific growth rate was recorded 1.68 d–1 at temperature of 25°C with salinity of 35 psu and nutrient concentration of 200% on 6th day during the culture period. Maximum biomass was also observed 4.9 × 105 cells mL–1 in the same condition. This species may belong to the euryhaline and eutrophic habitat with warm condition. For nutritional aspects of this species, protein, lipid and carbohydrate were measured. The value of protein, lipid and carbohydrate was 4.96%, 15.82% and 5.65%, respectively. The antioxidant activities of 80% methanolic extract were 46.7%, 23.7% and 23.8% on DPPH (1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylydrazy) radical, superoxide anion radical and hydrogen peroxide scavenging, respectively. Percentage metal chelating activity was 81.2%. Enzymatic extracts of Alcalase and Ultraflow showed remarkable scavenging activities on DPPH radical (86.5% and 57.2%, respectively), and superoxide anion scavenging activities were 45.3% and 41.4% from Kojizyme and Viscozyme extracts, respectively. Extract of Protomex revealed 24.8% activity on hydrogen peroxide and Neutase showed 30.8% on hydroxyl radical scavenging effects. Celluclast and Viscozyme extracts showed 33.2% and 32.1% activities on nitric oxide scavenging, respectively, while Alcalase showed 61.5% on metal chelating. This species contains higher lipids among the biochemical compounds and higher metal chelating activities from both 80% methanolic and enzymatic extracts.