Antibacterial study of the seaweed Ulva fasciata

The marine environment supplies many kinds of habitats that support marine life. Marine life depends in some way on the saltwater that is in the sea (the term marine comes from the Latin mare, meaning sea or ocean). Marine organisms are potentially prolific sources of highly bioactive secondary metabolites that might represent useful leads in the development of new pharmaceutical agents. The principal use of seaweeds are as a source of human food as well as a source of gums (phycocollides). Phycocolloides like agar agar, alginic acid and carrageenan are primary constituents of brown and red algal cell walls and are widely used in industry. The antibacterial activity of the Acetone, Methanol and Ethanol extracts of the marine algae Ulva fasciata from Ennore Beach near Chennai (coast of TamilNadu) were tested in-vitro against a panel of Gram positive and Gram negative bacterial strains. In this study, agar well diffusion test technique was followed. The result exhibited antibacterial activity of the algal extracts against both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria on selective media.