Bangladesh Journal of Pharmacology Volume: 13; Number 1; Year 2018 Cite this article as: Chander MP, Vijayachari P. Antimicrobial and anti-oxidant potentials of marine sponges of South Andaman, India. Bangladesh J Pharmacol. 2018; 13: 13-15. Antimicrobial and anti-oxidant potentials of marine sponges of South Andaman, India Sir, Marine organisms are a rich source of structurally novel and biologically active products, many of which exhibit structural and chemical features not found in terrestrial natural product (Jimeno 2002). The interest in marine organisms as a potential and promising source in pharmaceutical industries has been increased during the last few decades (Chander et al., 2014). Sessile marine invertebrates such as sponges, lacking morpho- logical defence structures have developed the largest number of marine-derived secondary metabolites including some of the most interesting drug candidates. In marine invertebrates, so far 7,000 marine natural products have been reported. These include sponges (33%), coelenterates (18%), sea whip, sea fans and soft corals (24%) from representatives of other invertebrate phyla molluscs, echinoderms and bryozoans (Madhu et al., 2014). Recent studies have reported the isolation of novel anticancer, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, antiproto- zoal, anthelmintic, anti-inflammatory, immunosuppre- ssive, antifouling and a range of other bioactive com- pounds from marine species (Majali et al., 2015; El Amraoui et al., 2014; Mehbub et al., 2014). In the present study, the antimicrobial and anti-oxidant properties of seven marine sponges are described. This is part of the programme on screening of marine organisms for a variety of biological activities, with the aim of identi- fying novel and potentially useful therapeutic agents. Sponges were collected by scuba diving from sub tidal habitats, at depths of 8 to 10 m, at different locations of Wandoor, Chidiyatapu, Pongibalu and Havelock of South Andaman, India. Later, they were frozen and transferred immediately to the laboratory for methanol extraction. Identification of the specimens was carried out by Zoological Survey of India, Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. The species investigated in this study are listed in Table I. The marine sponges were homogenized in a blender with small amount of water and extracted by cold percolation method with methanol solvent (1:10 v/v.) for 72 hours at room temperature. The whole extract was collected in a flask, filtered and the solvent was evaporated to dryness under reduced pressure in an evaporator at 40-45°C. The residues were stored at 4°C for future use (Chander et al., 2016). The microorganisms used in this study included nine bacterial strains and one fungal strain. These include, Escherichia coli (MTCC 443), Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC 737), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MTCC 1688), Bacillus cereus (MTCC 1272), Staphylococcus epidermidis (MTCC 3615), Proteus mirabilis (MTCC 425), Shigella flexneri (MTCC 1457), Salmonella typhi (MTCC 733), Klebsiella pneumonia (MTCC 129) and one fungal strain Candida albicans (MTCC 227), which were procured from Microbial Type Culture Collection, Chandigarh, India. The agar well diffusion method was used to screen the antimicrobial activity (Chander et al., 2016). The anti- oxidant activity of the sponge extracts was assessed by their ability to scavenging 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydra- zyl stable radicals (DPPH) by using the method describ- ed previously (Singh et al., 2015). All tests and analyses were run in triplicate and averaged. Out of seven sponge extracts tested for antimicrobial activity, four were found to inhibit one or more micro- organisms. The results of the antimicrobial screening of the crude extracts are shown in Table II. Among the sponges screened, Neopetrosia exigua showed promising activity against the tested micro-organisms. Methanol extracts of Plakortis simplex, Dictyonella Schmidt, Xestospongia testudinaria also showed anti-bacterial activity. N. exigua A Journal of the Bangladesh Pharmacological Society (BDPS) Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2018; 13: 13-15 Journal homepage: www.banglajol.info Abstracted/indexed in Academic Search Complete, Agroforestry Abstracts, Asia Journals Online, Bangladesh Journals Online, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts, Current Abstracts, Directory of Open Access Journals, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Global Health, Google Scholar, HINARI (WHO), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Open J-gate, Science Citation Index Expanded, SCOPUS and Social Sciences Citation Index ISSN: 1991-0088; DOI: 10.3329/bjp.v13i1.34465 Letter to the Editor This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are free to copy, distribute and perform the work. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor Table I Anti-oxidant properties of selected sponge extracts Name of the Sponge Anti-oxidant IC50 (µg/mL) Callyspongia aculeata 186.2 ± 2.9 Dictyonella cactus 213.6 ± 10.7 Hyrtios erecta 32.5 ± 0.3 Neopetrosia exigua 36.6 ± 0.1 Paratetilla bacca 58.0 ± 1.5 Plakortis simplex 59.8 ± 0.1 Xestospongiatestudinaria 46.7 ± 0.3 Ascorbic acid 13.9 ± 0.1 extact only showed antifungal activity against C. albicans. The Hyrtios erecta extracts exhibited radical scavenging activity having IC50 value 32.5 ± 0.3 µg/mL followed by N. exigua and X. testudinaria having IC50 value 36.6 ± 0.1 µg/mL and 46.7 ± 0.3 µg/mL respectively (Table I). However, all extracts offered less scavenging activity as compared to the standard anti-oxidant ascorbic acid (IC50 = 13.9 ± 0.1 µg/mL). Previous reports have shown that crude extracts of N. exigua was earlier reported to have strong inhibitory activity against P. berghei (Abdillah et al., 2013). N. exigua extract produced the largest zones of inhibition against S. epidermidis followed by X. testudinaria extract against B. cereus. The most sensitive bacterium was B. cereus, S. epidermidis and S. aureus. On the other hand, none of the sponge extracts inhibited the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Extracts of H. erecta, Paratetilla bacca and Callyspongia aculeata showed nil antimicrobial activity against the pathogenic strains screened. In the present study, marine spongesfound to possess 14 Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2018; 13: 13-15 Ta bl e II A n ti m ic ro b ia l a ct iv it y o f m e th a n o l cr u d e e x tr a ct s o f sp o n g e s M ic ro o rg a n is m s Z o n e o f in h ib it io n ( m m ) H y rt io s er ec ta P ar at et il la ba cc a D ic ty on el la ca ct u s N eo p et ro si a ex ig u a X es to sp on g ia te st u d in ar ia P la ko rt is si m pl ex C al ly sp on gi a ac u le at a G en ta m ic in N y st a ti n S ta p hy lo co cc u s au re u s - - 1 4. 7 ± 0 .6 1 3. 7 ± 1 .2 - 1 4. 7 ± 1 .2 - 1 7. 7 ± 0 .6 - B ac il lu s ce re u s - - 1 4. 7 ± 1 .2 1 7. 3 ± 0 .6 1 8. 3 ± 1 .5 1 5. 7 ± 1 .2 - 2 2. 7 ± 1 .2 - P se u d om on as ae ru gi n os a - - - - - - - 1 2. 7 ± 0 .6 - K le bs ie ll a p n eu m o- n ia - - - 1 4. 0 ± 1 .0 - - - 1 4. 0 ± 0 .0 - E sh er ic hi a co li - - 1 3. 3 ± 1 .5 1 4. 7 ± 1 .2 - 1 0. 7 ± 0 .6 - 1 8. 3 ± 0 .6 - S h ig el la f le x en er i - - - 1 6. 3 ± 2 .1 - 1 0. 7 ± 0 .6 - 1 9. 7 ± 1 .5 - S al m on el la t yp h i - - - 1 3. 3 ± 1 .5 - - - 1 5. 3 ± 1 .2 - S ta p hy lo co cc u s ep id er m id is - - - 1 8. 7 ± 0 .6 1 5. 7 ± 1 .2 1 1. 0 ± 1 .0 - 2 1. 7 ± 0 .6 - P ro te u s m ir ab il is - - - 1 4. 7 ± 1 .2 - - - 1 2. 7 ± 0 .6 - C an d id a al bi ca n s - - - 1 0. 0 ± 0 .0 - - - - 1 7. 7 ± 0 .6 ‘– ‘in di ca te s N o ac tiv ity were effective. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating the antimicrobial activity of the marine spongesfrom Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with few exceptions. These organisms need to investi-gate in detail, in order to isolate biologically active molecules and thus paving the way to search for novel compounds. Furthermore, the encouraging biological activity observed in this study show that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are potential source of variety of marine organisms worthy of further investigation. The authors acknowledge to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, India for providing financial grant for the study (Project No. Tribal/43/2008-ECD-II). Authors are also thankful to Zoological Survey of India, Port Blair for their help in collection and identification of sponge specimens. The authors have declared that there is no conflict of interest. M. Punnam Chander and Paluru Vijayachari Regional Medical Research Centre (ICMR), WHO Collaborating Centre for Diagnosis, Reference, Research and Training in Leptospirosis, Port Blair 744101, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Corresponding author: email: pblicmr@sancharnet.in; Phone: +91 3192 251158, +91 3192 251164; Fax: +91 3192 251163 References Abdillah S, Ahmad RW, Muzaki FK, Noor NM. Antimalarial activity of Neopetrosiaexigua extract in mice. J Pharm Res. 2013; 6: 799-803. Chander MP, Pillai CR, Sunish IP, Vijayachari P. Antimicrobial and antimalarial properties of medicinal plants used by the indigenous tribes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Microb Pathog. 2016; 96: 85-88. Chander MP, Sachithanandam V, Vijayachari P. Antimicrobial and haemolytic activity of seaweed Padina gymnospora from South Andaman, Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Int J Curr Microbiol App Sci. 2014; 3: 364-69. Chander MP, Vijayachari P. 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