| Summary: | Brown seaweeds have shown high potential of bioactivity and provide health benefits as an important functional food ingredient. Therefore, four abundantly growing tropical brown seaweeds—<i>Iyengaria stellata, Spatoglossum asperum</i>, <i>Sargassum linearifolium</i>, and <i>Stoechospermum polypodioides</i>—were collected from the Saurashtra Coast of the Arabian Sea. They were analyzed for metabolite profiling, biochemical activities (including total antioxidant, reducing, scavenging, and anti-proliferative characteristics), and total phenolic and flavonoid contents. A concentration-dependent antioxidant, reducing, and scavenging activities were observed for all four brown seaweeds. The <i>S. asperum</i> and <i>I. stellata</i> extracts showed maximum total antioxidant activity. <i>S. asperum</i> also showed high scavenging and reducing activities compared to other studied brown seaweeds. Further, <i>S. asperum</i> contained high total phenolic and flavonoid content compared to other brown seaweeds collected from the same coast. A multivariate correlation study confirmed a positive correlation between total phenolic and flavonoid contents, and biochemical activities (total antioxidant, scavenging and reducing) for all brown seaweeds. About 35% anti-proliferative activity was observed with <i>S. asperum</i> extract on Huh7 cells; in contrast <i>S. polypodioide</i> showed about 44% proliferation inhibition of Huh7 cells. Similarly, 26% proliferation inhibition of HeLa cells was observed with <i>S. asperum</i> extract. Overall, <i>S. asperum</i> possesses high total flavonoid and phenolic amounts, and showed potential antioxidant, scavenging and reducing characteristics. The study confirmed the nutraceutical potential of <i>S. asperum</i> and that it could be a promising functional food ingredient.
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