Radical Scavenging and Antioxidant Activities of Fermented Laminaria japonica Extracts

Radical scavenging and antioxidant activities of Laminaria japonica and fermented its extracts were evaluated. Freeze-dried L. japonica was fermented by Aspergillus oryzae and extracted with distilled water. The extract solution was mixed with ethanol and centrifuged. The supernatant was ethanol soluble fraction, non-polysaccharide fraction (ESF), and residue was ethanol insoluble precipitation, polysaccharide fraction (EIP). ESF was subjected to sequential fractionation with dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, butanol and water. To determine the radical scavenging and antioxidant activities of these, DPPH radical, hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion radical scavenging activities and linoleic acid oxidation were tested. Among the extracts, ESF of fermented L. japonica showed the highest radical scavenging activity. The ESF showed DPPH radical scavenging activity of 64.33% at concentration of 50 ㎍/mL. It was higher than 57.70% of vit. C. Ethyl acetate and butanol fraction had high value of radical scavenging and antioxidant activities, especially butanol fraction of fermented L. japonica was 79.48% of hydroxyl radical scavenging activity at concentration of 50 ㎍/mL. The fermented L. japonica had radical scavenging and antioxidant activities higher than L. japonica. These results suggest that fermented L. japonica is healthy food having radical scavenging and antioxidant activities.