Antioxidant and Free Radical Scavenging Properties of Marennine, a Blue-Green Polyphenolic Pigment from the Diatom Haslea ostrearia (Gaillon/Bory) Simonsen Responsible for the Natural Greening of Cultured Oysters

• Published in: Journal of agricultural and food chemistry 2008-08, Vol.56 (15), p.6278-6286
• Main Authors: Pouvreau, Jean-Bernard, Taran, Frédéric, Rosa, Philippe, Pin, Serge, Fleurence, Joël, Pondaven, Pierre
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; antioxidant activity; antioxidants; Antioxidants - pharmacology; Antioxidative activity; Bacillariophyta; beta-carotene; Bioactive Constituents; Biological and medical sciences; Biphenyl Compounds; Chemical Sciences; Diatoms - chemistry; dosage; effective concentration 50; Ferric Compounds - chemistry; Fish and seafood industries; Flavonoids - pharmacology; Food Additives; food coloring; Food engineering; Food industries; free radical scavengers; Free Radical Scavengers - pharmacology; free radicals; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Haslea ostrearia; Hydroxyl Radical; iron; Life Sciences; marennine; microalgae; molecular weight; natural additives; Ostreidae - chemistry; oyster greening; Phenols - pharmacology; Picrates; pigment; pigments; Pigments, Biological - pharmacology; polyphenol; Polyphenols; radical scavenging activity; reducing agents; superoxide anion; Superoxides; thymidine
• ISSN: 0021-8561; 1520-5118
• DOI: 10.1021/jf073187n

Among microalgae, the marine diatom Haslea ostrearia has the distinctive feature of synthesizing and releasing, into the surrounding environment, a blue-green polyphenolic pigment called marennine. The oyster-breeding industry commonly makes use of this natural phenomenon for the greening of oysters grown in the ponds of the French Atlantic coast. This article reports the in vitro antioxidant properties of pure marennine. Two kinds of evaluation systems were adopted to test the antioxidative activity of marennine: antioxidant capacity assays (β-carotene and thymidine protection assays and iron reducing power assay) and free radical scavenging assays (DPPH · , O2 ·−, and HO · ). In almost all cases, marennine exhibited significantly higher antioxidative and free radical scavenging activities than natural and synthetic antioxidants commonly used in food, as shown by comparing median effective concentration (EC50) values, for each test independently. This medium molecular weight polyphenol (around 10 kDa) from microalgae is thus a potentially useful natural antioxidant. Because of its blue-coloring property and water solubility, it could also be used as a natural food-coloring additive.