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Bioprospecting of the Adriatic Sea tunicate, Phallusia mammillata

Due to sedentary lifestyle and harsh environmental conditions, marine invertebrates, such as sponges and ascidians have been known as a rich source of diverse and structurally complex bioactive secondary metabolites of promising biotechnological potential. Ascidians of the genus Phallusia have recently been discovered as natural resources for potential pharmaceutical exploitation. However, the majority of the studies on Phallusia mammillata (Cuvier, 1815) investigated its basic development processes, while information about biological activities of extracts or pure metabolites are very scarce. In light of these information, we have decided to evaluate in vitro biological potential of crude organic extracts of P. mammillata regarding the scavenging activity against ABTS and DPPH radicals associated with antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects towards cancer and normal cell lines. Alcoholic and acetonitrile extracts displayed the highest ABTS scavenging activity while no sample showed remarkable inhibition against DPPH radical. Furthermore, antiproliferative and cytotoxic activity was demonstrated only by petroleum ether extract. The latter was found to consist of phenolic compounds, terpenoids, sterols, glycosides and alkaloids as detected by qualitative chemical screening. Further investigations will focus on the isolation and structural elucidation of the major active metabolites responsible for the observed biological activities.

bioprospecting, Phallusia mammillata, phytochemical screening, antioxidant, antiproliferative

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