Resumen

BRAGADEESWARAN, Subramanian; THANGARAJ, Sangappellai; PRABHU, Kolandhasamy  y  RAJ SOPHIA RANI, Solaman. Antifouling activity by sea anemone (Heteractis magnifica and H. aurora) extracts against marine biofilm bacteria. Lat. Am. J. Aquat. Res. [online]. 2011, vol.39, n.2, pp. 385-389. ISSN 0718-560X.

Sea anemones (Actiniaria) are solitary, ocean-dwelling members of the phylum Cnidaria and the class Anthozoa. In this study, we screened antibacterial activity of two benthic sea anemones (Heteractis magnifica and H. aurora) collected from the Mandapam coast of southeast India. Crude extracts of the sea anemone were assayed against seven bacterial biofilms isolated from three different test panels. The crude extract of H. magnifica showed a maximum inhibition zone of 18 mm against Pseudomonas sp. and Escherichia coli and a minimum inhibition zone of 3 mm against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Micrococcus sp., and Bacillus cerens for methanol, acetone, and DCM extracts, respectively. The butanol extract of H. aurora showed a maximum inhibition zone of 23 mm against Vibrio parahaemolyticus, whereas the methanol extract revealed a minimum inhibition zone of 1 mm against V. parahaemolyticus. The present study revealed that the H. aurora extracts were more effective than those of H. magnifica and that the active compounds from the sea anemone can be used as antifouling compounds.

Palabras llave : anemones; bioactive metabolites; novel antimicrobial; biofilm; natural antifouling; India.