Abstract

Aims: This study aims to elucidate the structural difference and biochemical properties of bioactive compounds of microalgal biomasses.

Background: The structural difference and biochemical properties of bioactive compounds termed as Water-Soluble Macromolecules (WSMs) are interested in evaluating their biological activities.

Methods: This study was performed to elucidate the structural difference and biochemical properties of bioactive compounds termed as Water-Soluble Macromolecules (WSMs) isolated from defatted microalgal biomasses of Botryococcus braunii and Dunaliella tertiolecta.

Results: The compositional analysis of both WSMs revealed that WSM-Bb is a hetero-macromolecule consisting of various monosaccharides, whereas WSM-Dt was characterized as a homo-- macromolecule that mainly consists of glucose. Interestingly, WSM-Bb showed the significant tyrosinase inhibitory activity with the increase of both the concentration and reaction time. Whereas there was no significant inhibitory activity observed by WSM-Dt.

Conclusion: Inhibitory action of WSM-Bb toward both tyrosinase and tyrosine in either simultaneous or separate reaction may be mainly due to the physical affinity of WSM-Bb. These results emphasize the identification of the primary components of these WSMs and their relevance with the antioxidant function.

Keywords: Microalgae, biomasses, water-soluble macromolecule, antioxidant, tyrosinase, substrate specificity.