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Antifungal property ofmarine spongeHaliclona oculata (Krikpatrick)

Vijai Lakshmi, Praveen Kumar Shukla

Drug from marine resources is an area which offers an unprecedented opportunity for their pharmacological exploration and hence has received great attention during recent years for natural product chemistry, a promising new area of study. Thirty percent of all potential new natural drugs have been isolated from marine animals.About 75%of the recently registered and patented material to fight cancer comes from sponges. The methanol extract of the sponge showed promising antifungal activity against Candida parapsilosis and Trichophyton mentagrophytes (MIC 62.5 g/ml). On fractionation of the methanolic extract, into four fractions, the antifungal activitywas localized in chloroformsoluble fraction against Sporothrix schenckii (MIC 62.5g/ml), Trichophyton mentagrophytes (MIC 62.5g/ml), Aspergillus fumigatus (MIC 62.5g/ml), Candida parapsilosis (MIC 62.5g/ml) and hexane soluble fraction Sporothrix schenckii (MIC 62.5g/ml) Candida parapsilosis (MIC 62.5g/ml) respectively. Both of these fractions were combined and chromatographed over a column of silica gel and six chromatographic fractions were evaluated for antifungal screening in in vitro models. Out of six fractions one showed promising antifungal activity against different models (Table-2), where as the others were found inactive. The active fraction-6 was found to be a mixture of four major alkaloids which were identified by LCMS analysis. The active fraction-6 was found to be a mixture of four major alkaloids which were identified by LCMS analysis. Further structure modifications of the identified alkaloids is required to enhance the antifungal activities in the semi-synthesized molecules.Modification of the structures of identified compounds from the active fraction may give enhanced activity and can be developed as a potential antifungal agent.