Antifungal property ofmarine spongeHaliclona oculata (Krikpatrick)

Vijai Lakshmi, Praveen Kumar S

Abstract

Drug from marine resources is an area which offers an unprecedented opportunity for their pharmacological exploration and hence has received great attention during recent years for natural product chemistry, a promising new area of study. Thirty percent of all potential new natural drugs have been isolated from marine animals.About 75%of the recently registered and patented material to fight cancer comes from sponges. The methanol extract of the sponge showed promising antifungal activity against Candida parapsilosis and Trichophyton mentagrophytes (MIC 62.5 g/ml). On fractionation of the methanolic extract, into four fractions, the antifungal activitywas localized in chloroformsoluble fraction against Sporothrix schenckii (MIC 62.5g/ml), Trichophyton mentagrophytes (MIC 62.5g/ml), Aspergillus fumigatus (MIC 62.5g/ml), Candida parapsilosis (MIC 62.5g/ml) and hexane soluble fraction Sporothrix schenckii (MIC 62.5g/ml) Candida parapsilosis (MIC 62.5g/ml) respectively. Both of these fractions were combined and chromatographed over a column of silica gel and six chromatographic fractions were evaluated for antifungal screening in in vitro models. Out of six fractions one showed promising antifungal activity against different models (Table-2), where as the others were found inactive. The active fraction-6 was found to be a mixture of four major alkaloids which were identified by LCMS analysis. The active fraction-6 was found to be a mixture of four major alkaloids which were identified by LCMS analysis. Further structure modifications of the identified alkaloids is required to enhance the antifungal activities in the semi-synthesized molecules.Modification of the structures of identified compounds from the active fraction may give enhanced activity and can be developed as a potential antifungal agent.