Studies on the Ecology of Soil Actinomycetes and Evaluation of Their Antimicrobial Activities

The main objective of this investigation was to study the actinomycetes community in rubber plantations, banana plantations and undisturbed forest areas of Kanya kumari District. A total of 34 strains were isolated from the three sites. The samples were serially diluted and spread on actinomycetes isolation agar. The pure cultures obtained were subjected to morphological and biochemical characterization. Individual strains were cultured in fermentation broth and the secondary metabolites were extracted with ethyl acetate. The crude extract was tested for its antagonistic activity against a series of gram positive and gram negative bacteria, yeasts and fungi. Most of the strains showed good activity against the pathogens tested. The study concludes that soil actinomycetes isolated from different plantations possess a broad spectrum of pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications