979-984
Microalgal fatty acid methyl ester a new source of bioactive compounds with antimicrobial activity
Authors: Arumugham Suresh, Ramasamy Praveenkumar, Ramasamy Thangaraj, Felix Lewis Oscar, Edachery Baldev, Dharumadurai Dhanasekaran, Nooruddin Thajuddin
Number of views: 179
Objective: To evaluate fatty acid composition and the antimicrobial activity of the major fraction
of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) extracts from three microalgae collected from freshwater lakes
in Theni District, Tamil Nadu, India.
Methods: Antimicrobial study was carried out by well diffusion method against bacterial as well
as fungal pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter sp., Klebsiella
sp., Salmonella typhi, Fusarium sp., Cryptococcus sp., Candida sp., and Aspergillus niger and
Aspergillus flavus. The FAME profiles were determined through gas chromatography with a flame
ionization detector.
Results: The FAME was found to be radial effective in inhibiting the radial growth of both
bacterial and fungal pathogens. The FAME extracts exhibited the antibacterial activity against
three clinical pathogens, namely, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi and Enterobacter sp. with the
maximum zone of inhibition of 12.0 mm, 12.0 mm and 11.0 mm, respectively. The FAME showed
moderate antifungal activity against Cryptococcus sp. (11.8 mm), Aspergillus niger (10.5 mm),
Candida sp. (11.8 mm) and Fusarium sp. (10.4 mm). Gas chromatography-flame ionization detector
analysis revealed about 30 different FAMEs.
Conclusions: We assume that the observed antimicrobial potency may be due to the abundance
of erucic acid methyl ester (C22:0), arachidic acid methyl ester (C20:0), palmitic acid methyl ester
(C16:0), cis-11-eicosenoicmethyl ester (C20:1), cis-11, 14-eicosadienoic acid methyl ester (C20:2)
and linolenic acid methyl ester (C18:3) in FAMEs which appears to be promising to treat microbial
diseases.