Bioactivity and phycochemical studies on Microspora Floccosa (chlorophycota) from sindh

Abstract

Microspora floccosa (Vaucher) Thuret [= Prolifera floccosa Vaucher], a filamentous green alga was collected from River Indus at Power House Station, near Hyderabad and extracted with methanol. The extract displayed a strong antimicrobial activity against 14 bacterial and 20 fungal species. Eleven saturated and 11 unsaturated fatty acids were found in the extracts where former were lesser in quantity (47.4 %) than the latter ones (52.6 %). Palmitic acid (C 16:0) was present in the highest amount (12.3 %), while oleic acid (C 18:1) was detected in an appreciable proportion (6.1 %). Two sterols and two terpenes were also obtained from the extract, which were chemically elucidated as cholesterol, 24-isopropyl- 5-cholesten-3β-ol, trans-phytol and cyclopterospermol. Show more