Preliminary Screening of Seaweeds, Seagrass and Lemongrass Oil from Papua New Guinea for Antimicrobial and Antifungal Activity

Abstract

The methanol and hexane extracts of Halimeda tuna, Enhalus acoroides, Turbinaria ornata, Hormo-physa articulata, Padina sp., Liaqura sp. and Sargassum sp. were tested against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Most of the methanol and hexane extracts exhibited antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria. None of the extracts were found to be active against K. pneumoniae and only the methanol extracts exhibited activity against the Gram-negative bacterium P. aeruginosa. The crude ethanol extract of all seaweeds and E. acoroides were tested against the dermatophytes Microsporum canis, Epidermatophy-ton floccosum and Trichophyton rubrum and all of them were found to be inactive. The lemongrass oil was tested against S. aureus, B. subtilis, P. aeruginosa, T. rubrum and Escherichia coli. The oil showed detectable activity against B. subtilis, S. aureus and E. coli.