Preparation of the Persian Gulf Echinometra mathaei Organic Extracts and Investigation of Their Antibacterial Activity

Marine organisms such as Echinoderms have secondary metabolites, which are antimicrobial naturally. Various extracts of echinoderms organs possess pharmacological activities, including anticancer, antimicrobial, antifungal, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory functions.

The purpose of this research was to assay the Persian Gulf sea urchin secondary metabolites for antimicrobial effectiveness.

Sea urchins (Echinometra mathaei) were collected from the Boushehr tide coasts, Persian Gulf. Gonads, gut, tests, shell, and spines were carefully dissected from sea urchins, washed with tap water, and separated for the extraction procedure. All organs were extracted with 1:3 volumes (v/w) of methanol, chloroform, and n-hexane by maceration method for 72 hours at room temperature. The antimicrobial activity of the sea urchin tissue extracts was tested by well diffusion agar method.

All extracts of the sea urchin E. mathaei at 50 mg/mL concentration exhibited in vitro antimicrobial activity against Gramnegative and Gram-positive bacteria, including Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Bacillus subtilis, and two fungi, including Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger. The antibacterial activity of the sea urchin extracts varied with the solvent used for the bacterial strains.

The results clearly showed the high antimicrobial activity of test and spines of the Persian Gulf sea urchin extracts against various Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.