Screening for antifungal activities of extracts of the brazilian seaweed genus Laurencia (Ceramiales, Rhodophyta)

Abstract

Abstract:The resistance of pathogens to commonly used antibiotics has enhanced morbidity and mortality and has triggered the search for new drugs. Several species of the red alga genus Laurencia are very interesting candidates as potential sources of natural products with pharmaceutical activity because they are known to produce a wide range of chemically interesting halogenated secondary metabolites. This is an initial report of the antifungal activities of the secondary metabolites of five species of Laurencia, collected in the state of Espírito Santo, against three strains of pathogenic fungi: Candida albicans (CA), Candida parapsilosis (CP), and Cryptococcus neoformans (CN). Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of the algal extracts were determined by serial dilution method in RPMI 1640 Medium in 96-well plates according to the NCCLS and microbial growth was determined by absorbance at 492nm. A result showing maintenance or reduction of the inoculum was defined as fungistatic, while fungicidal action was no observed growth in the 10 µL fungistatic samples subcultured in Sabouraud Agar. Our results indicate that apolar extracts of Laurencia species possess antifungal properties and encourage continued research to find new drugs for therapy of infectious diseases in these algae.

Chemical analysis and toxicity of seaweed extracts with inhibitory activity against tropical fruit anthracnose fungi

“…In addition, seaweeds are associated with antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, anthelmintic and antifungal activities as well as cytotoxicity, suggesting many potential applications in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and agricultural fields …”

Avaliação da atividade biológica de extratos orgânicos e caracterização parcial de uma lectina de Manilkara rufula

“…Muitos compostos bioativos têm sido isolados a partir de extratos de algas e relatados como possuidores de excelente atividade antibacteriana (LAKSHMI, et al, 2006;OSMAN, et al, 2010) e antifúngica (ERTÜRK e TAS, 2011;STEIN et al, 2011). Suffredini et al (2004…”

Bioprospecting macroalgae, marine and terrestrial invertebrates & their associated microbiota

“…(Cardozo et al 2007;Gressler et al 2009Gressler et al , 2011Martins et al, 2016). Furthermore, isolated compounds, extracts and fractionated extracts have been reported to have important biological activities, including anti-inflammatory, neglected diseases such as leishmanicidal, trypanocidal ( Torres et al 2014;Falkenberg et al 2019;Rangel et al 2019;Clementino et al 2020;, schistosomicidal (Stein et al 2021), antioxidant and UV absorber (Rangel et al 2020;Tavares et al 2020a;2020b), anticancer (Vieira et al 2016;Santos-Pirath et al 2020, Gambato et al 2014, biofilms for drug release (Paniz et al 2020) and microbicidal properties as antifungal (Stein et al 2011), antivirus (Cirne-Santos et al 2020, antifouling ( Salgado et al 2008, Carvalho et al 2017. Due to the different uses and wide availability of these photosynthetic organisms, the interest has turned from wild harvest to farming and controlled cultivation.…”