Screening of antibacterial and antifungal activities of red marine algae Acanthaphora spicifera (Rhodophyceae)

Infectious diseases are one of the main causes of high morbidity and mortality in human beings around the world. Currently the marine is an important source of medicinal products since the marine ecosystem,particularly seaweeds are directly exposed and are susceptible to ambient micro organisms such as bacteria fungi and viruses. In the present study, we assessed the antibacterial and antifungal activity of various extracts of Acanthaphora spicifera such as petroleum-ether, chloroform and methanol against Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus palmitus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and against Candida albicans, Microsporum gypseum, Aspergillus niger respectively by disc diffusion techniquies. The methanolic extract of Acanthaphora spicifera was showed higher antibacterial and antifungal activity compare to other two extracts. The minimum inhibitory concentration of methanolic extract of Acanthaphora spicifera was found to the range of 100μg.ml-1 to 50mg.ml-1 on test organisms. The antibacterial and antifungal activity of methanolic extracts showed similar activity to that of ciprofloxacin and amphotericin respectively.