Poster Presenter
On the antimicrobial activity
of cell extracts of microalgae and cyanobacteria against foodborne
bacteria
A. Catarina Guedes, Helena M. Amaro & F. Xavier Malcata
Portugal
Cyanobacteria and microalgae are highly productive
and efficient biological systems, in terms of metabolic versatility
and biochemical diversity.
In efforts to discover novel pharmaceutical compounds, screening
for antibacterial features has been comprehensively carried out
in higher plants; microalgae, in general, and cyanobacteria, in
particular, have not yet received a similar attention. However,
their relatively high growth rate, simple growth requirements, amenability
to controlled laboratory culture, ubiquity and biodiversity make
them suitable candidates for eventual commercial production of said
compounds.
In this work, intra- and extracellular extracts of 13 cyanobacteria
and 23 microalgae, were assayed for, via a visual turbidity test
using a linear scale, with the aim of making a preliminary qualitative
and discriminatory screening; the target pathogenic bacteria considered
were Salmonella sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli
and Staphylococcus aureus, obtained from food and clinical
isolates.
Scenedesmus obliquus strain M2-1 was the microalga that
exhibited the highest antibacterial activity in terms of extracellular
extracts, followed by extracellular extracts of Pavlova lutheri
strain I#25 and intracellular extracts of S. obliquus strain
B, against the aforementioned pathogens.
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