Abstract
Codium fragile and Chondrus crispus are, respectively, green and red seaweeds which are abundant along the North Atlantic coasts. We investigated the chemical composition and antiviral activity of enzymatic extracts of C. fragile (CF) and C. crispus (CC). On a dry weight basis, CF consisted of 11% protein, 31% neutral sugars, 0.8% sulfate, 0.6% uronic acids, and 49% ash, while CC contained 27% protein, 28% neutral sugars, 17% sulfate, 1.8% uronic acids, and 25% ash. Enzyme-assisted hydrolysis improved the extraction efficiency of bioactive materials. Commercial proteases and carbohydrases significantly improved (p ≤ 0.001) biomass yield (40%-70% dry matter) as compared to aqueous extraction (20%-25% dry matter). Moreover, enzymatic hydrolysis enhanced the recovery of protein, neutral sugars, uronic acids, and sulfates. The enzymatic hydrolysates exhibited significant activity against Herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) with EC50 of 77.6-126.8 μg/mL for CC and 36.5-41.3 μg/mL for CF, at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 0.001 ID50/cells without cytotoxity (1-200 μg/mL). The extracts obtained from proteases (P1) and carbohydrases (C3) were also effective at higher virus MOI of 0.01 ID50/cells without cytotoxity. Taken together, these results indicate the potential application of enzymatic hydrolysates of C. fragile and C. crispus in functional food and antiviral drug discovery.