Antioxidant and haemolytic activity of tyrosinase producing marine actinobacteria from salterns

The present work was concerned with the isolation and screening of tyrosinase enzyme producing marine actinobacteria from marine salterns soil. It was also focussed on testing the antioxidant and haemolytic activity of the isolated marine actinobacteria. A total of 17 actinobacterial isolates were isolated from salterns soil samples from Kothapattanam, Ongole, Andhra Pradesh. They were screened for tyrosinase production using skim milk agar medium. In the primary screening, among the 17 isolates, isolate NSRB showed a maximum zone of hydrolysis. 8 potent isolates were studied for secondary screening using tyrosinase agar. Based on the result of secondary screening, NSRB was selected for further analysis, such as tyrosinase assay and protein content. The isolate NSRB showed moderately higher antioxidant activity in various screening tests viz., DPPH scavenging assay (88.20%), metal chelating assay (75.37%) and reducing power assay (0.59%). The isolate was found to be non haemolytic towards human RBC. Further the isolate NSRB was partially characterized by conventional methods, using Nonomura key. It showed similar characteristics to Streptomyces aureofasciculus.