SCREENING OF MARINE GASTROPODS FOR POTENTIAL ANTIBACTERIAL SUBSTANCES AGAINST PATHOGENIC BACTERIA

Marine invertebrate possess many safeguarding secondary metabolites to survive in a microbe-rich benthic ecosystem which are useful in the biomedical area. In the present study, Antibacterial activity was observed in three gastropods - Mauritia arabica, Purpura bufo and Pleuroploca trapezium against five pathogenic bacteria. Antibacterial activity was carried out by disc diffusion method using the tissue and shell extract of benzene and ethanol. The ethanolic tissue extract of P.bufo showed a higher inhibitory action (17.67 mm) against gram positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. Among the two different extract, antibacterial activity was more pronounced in the ethanol extracts than the benzene extracts. The antibacterial potential in the tissue and shell extracts of the molluscs suggest that the different species of gastropods possess distinct antibacterial compounds