Biopotentials of Mangroves Collected from the Southwest Coast of India

Abstract

Abstarct: Southwest coast of India boasts remarkable biodiversity and presents a pristine seascape. In the present study, three mangrove species (Avicennia marina, Bruguiera cylindrical and Acanthus ilicifolius) collected form the coast was extracted in methanol and tested for different range of biological activities including antimicrobial activity against five species of type cultures (Microbial Type Culture Collection) of fish/shrimp Vibrio pathogens, brine shrimp cytotoxic, antifouling and ichthyotoxic activities. The overall activity profile showed that, A. marina exhibited more biopotency than B. cylindrica and A. ilicifolius. The highly active mangrove, A. marina was evaluated further to analyse the active compounds using gas chromatography. The analysis revealed a mixture of fatty acids such as alpha linolenic acid (30%), palmetic acid (21%), stearic acid (14%), lauric acid (9%), myristic acid (5%), oliec acid (5%) which might have functional role in bioactivity and can be used for the development of biodegradable antifoulants, pisicides and biopharmaceuticals. Key words: Mangrove extract Vibriocidal activity Brine shrimp cytotoxicity Antifouling activity INTRODUCTION Approximately 55 species of mangroves from 22 Mangroves are intertidal productive forested wetland first report on regarding the chemistry of Indian constrained to the tropical and subtropical estuarine mangroves was reported by Rao and Bose [11]. Recent