In vitro evaluation of seaweed gracilaria verrucosa for cytotoxic activity against cervical HeLa cells

Background: Seaweed macroalgae of Gracilaria verrucosa has been known to have a potent anticancer activity, however the cytotoxicity against cervical cancer has not been explored further. Objective: This study aims to utilize Indonesia’s marine resource which is focused on seaweed macroalgae G. verrucosa as a future anti-cervical cancer agent. Materials and Method: Seaweed G. verrucosa originated from Labuan Aji beach, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Indonesia, extracted, macerated, and fractionated into four organic solvents of different polarity, consisting of hexane, ethyl acetate, chloroform and ethanol. Then, the macroalgae extracts are diluted into 8 different concentrations. Afterwards, in vitro anticancer activity evaluation of hexane, ethyl acetate, chloroform and ethanol extracts of G. verrucosa against cervical HeLa cells were conducted by MTT cell proliferation assay. Triplo mechanism is also applied in this study to increase the accuracy of the results. The anticancer activity is measured using IC₅₀ value. Results: The four concentrated extracts G. verrucosa showed cytotoxicity against cervical HeLa cells. The greatest anticancer activity is depicted by hexane extract with an IC₅₀ of 14.94 µg/mL, followed by chloroform (IC₅₀ 15.74 µg/mL), ethyl acetate (IC₅₀ 16.18 µg/mL), and ethanol (IC₅₀ 19.43 µg/mL). Conclusion: Our results clearly indicate that hexane, ethanol, chloroform, and ethyl acetate extracts of seaweed G. verrucosa can be further developed to be anti-cervical cancer agents with hexane extract displaying the greatest cytotoxic effect.