Free radical scavenging activity of five selected sea cucumbers collected from Lampung waters, Indonesia

Sea cucumber is an important raw material for food and remedy in the Eastern region. However, a study focusing on identifying the health benefit of sea cucumbers from tropical waters is still limited. A study on the free radical scavenging activity of five selected sea cucumbers collected from Lampung waters, Indonesia has been done. The objective of this study was to evaluate the free radical scavenging activity of five selected sea cucumbers, namely Stichopus vastus, Stichopus quadrifasciatus, Holothuria (Metriatyla) lessoni, Holothuria (Mertensiothuria) leucospilota, and Bohadschia marmorata. The extraction method which used in this study was the maceration method using methanol solvent while the free radical scavenging activity test is carried out using 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) method. Compared to other species at a concentration of 250 µg/mL, S. vastus, S. quadrifasciatus, H. lessoni and H. leucospilota showed the strongest scavenging activity. While B. marmorata was classified as a very weak scavenging activity. It can be concluded that S. vastus, S. quadrifasciatus, H. lessoni H. leucospilota, and H. lessoni are important sea cucumbers from tropical waters as a source of natural antioxidant agents in the future.