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PHYCOCHEMISTRY AND BIOACTIVITY OF TETRASPORA (VOLVOCOPHYTA) FROM SINDH

B. GHAZALA, MUSTAFA SHAMEEL, M. IQBAL CHOUDHARY¹, SALEEM SHAHZAD AND SULTAN MAHMOOD LEGHARI²

Abstract: Two unicellular green algae, Tetraspora cylindrica (Wahlenberg) Agardh and T. gelatinosa (Vaucher) Desvaux were collected from thermal effluents and industrial wastewater near Hyderabad, Sindh during December 1995 and February 1996. Their methanol extracts revealed the presence of a variety of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, a steroidal fatty acid, ß-sitosterol and trans-phytol. In T. cylindrica 9 saturated and 11 unsaturated fatty acids were present in equal amounts (44.87 & 44.39 %), hencicosanoic acid (C21:0) was in largest quantity (17.02 %), pentadienoic (C5:2) and undecatrienoic (C11:3) acids were in smallest amount (0.115 %). In T. gelatinosa no saturated, no mono- and di-unsaturated fatty acids could be detected, pentadecatetraenoic (C15: 4) acid occurred in largest quantity (30.08 %). The extract of T. cylindrica showed antibiotic activity against three of the ten bacterial species, six of the ten fungal pathogens and all the six fungi by food poisoning method. Both algae displayed appreciable amount of bioactivity regarding phytotoxicity with no activity in brine shrimp bioassay and insecticidal test.
 

Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi-75270, Pakistan.
HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, University of Karachi, Karachi-75270.
Department of Freshwater Biology & Fisheries, University of Sindh, Jamshoro-76080.