Summary:
Screening of potential antioxidant activities of water and 70% acetone extracts from ten species of Icelandic seaweeds was performed using three antioxidant assays. Significant differences were observed both in total phenolic contents (TPC) and antioxidant activities of extracts from the various species evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and ferrous ion- chelating ability assays. Acetone extracts from three Fucoid species had the highest TPC and consequently exhibited the strongest radical scavenging activities. High correlation was found between TPC of seaweed extracts and their scavenging capacity against DPPH and peroxyl radicals, indicating an important role of algal polyphenols as chain-breaking antioxidants. However, water extracts generally had higher ferrous ion-chelating activity than 70% acetone extracts and no correlation was found with their TPC, suggesting that other components such as polysaccharides, proteins or peptides in the extracts were more effective chelators of ferrous ions than phenolic compounds.