ANTIFOULING POTENTIAL OF SELECTED MACROALGAE FROM THE GULF OF MANNAR, INDIA

Author(s): Sivadasan Deepa, Muthulingam Srikumar and Krishna Pillai Padmakumar

Abstract

Marine macroalgae are mostly free from fouling organisms in the marine environment. They defend themselves against fouling directly through the production of antifouling compounds, or indirectly through regulating the attachment of micro and macrofoulers. In this study, the methanol extracts of 43 species of macroalgae, collected from the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay regions of India, were evaluated for antifouling activity against the epiphytic diatoms (Navicula subinflata, Nitzschia palea) as well as cyprid larvae of Balanus amphitrite. It was found that extracts of 23 species of macroalgae exhibited antidiatom activity and 16 extracts inhibited settlement property of barnacle larvae. The algae, Asparagopsis taxiformis showed the highest inhibitory effect on both the test diatoms with inhibition of 11.5±1.11mm and 14.25±2.38mm zones respectively. Meanwhile, Liagora erecta and Acanthophora spicifera exhibited highest activity against the diatom, Navicula subinflata. The assay using cyprid larvae revealed that 16 algal extracts showed antisettlement activity and the highest was recorded by Liagora erecta (84.80±1.33% inhibition), with an IC50 of 77.45μg ml-1. The observations in the present study revealed that ten species of macroalgae have both micro and macrofouling property. The Principal Component Analyses (PCA) was also employed to assess the antifouling activity of algae.

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