V. Daisy Rathina Nightingale, R. Balasubramanian and P. Anantharaman
Abstract
The antifungal assay was carried out using three organic solvents namely diethyl ether, acetone and methanol. A total of 6 seaweeds from Vellar and Uppanar estuary were tested against 7 pathogens. In the present investigation, only moderate and trace antifungal activity was noticed against Candida alb: cans, Microsporum gypseum and Mucor sp. and none of the algal extracts were active against the genera Aspergillus and Rhizopus. The order of antifungal activity was as follows Gracdaria verrucosa> Cladophora glomerata > Rosenvingea intricata > Enteromorpha clathrata. This may be due to the lack of plant protein, often responsible for antifungal activity or due to low level of specific metabolites in the extracts or may be because of the different solvents used for extraction. The seaweed samples from Uppanar estuary were noted to show more activity towards tested pathogens when compared to seaweeds from Vellar estuary during the present investigation.