Antibacterial, Anti-Diabetic and Anti-Inflammatory Property of the Sea Weed, Porteresia coarctata, Collected from Mangrove Fringed Mudflats of Sundarban Coast, West Bengal

Porteresia coarctata (= Oryza coarctata) is a perennial halophytic wild grass, relative of rice and member of the family Poaceae. It acts as a pioneer species in the succession process of mangrove formation along the estuaries of India. The sequestering carbon, fertilizer in aquaculture and salt tolerant property of this mangrove associate has been dealt with by a number of workers earlier. But, the present study was conducted to evaluate the antibacterial property of aqueous, acetone, ethanol and methanol extracts of Porteresia coarctata collected from the Matla river of Indian Sunderban delta. Collected sea weeds were screened for their antibacterial studies against gram positive bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus fecalis and Bacillus subtilis and gram-negative bacteria including Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, Klebsiella pneumonia and Proteus vulgaris using disc diffusion method. Present study shows that ethanol extracts of Porteresia coarctata has maximum antibacterial activity against E.coli (1.2±0.01 mm) and Streptococcus fecalis (1.4±0.01 mm) at an MIC of 700 μg/mL and 500 μg/mL, respectively. Along with the antimicrobial activities, seaweeds also showed anti-diabetic activity and but have no anti-inflammatory activity. Therefore, the results suggested that these sea weeds could be exploited in the management of various infectious diseases and can be used as for pharmaceutical purpose.