Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Distribution: Europe, Central Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Paciic Islands
Habitat: Freshwater habitats, brackish waters, and marine environments
Description: The ilaments of this species are blue-green, brown, or violet, lux-
uous or slightly coiled, and highly entangled. They form free-loating spher-
ical colonies embedded in a gelatinous substance. The cells (3-4 µm) in the
ilaments are barrel shaped. The heterocysts (5-7 µm wide) are subspherical.
Compounds and activities: The bioactive compounds isolated from this species
are 1,37-octatriacontadiene (octadecomol) and borophycin (boron-contain-
ing metabolite). The latter is cytotoxic, acting against human epidermoid
carcinoma (LoVo) and colorectal adenocarcinoma (KB) cell lines. The fatty
acids, viz., oleic and linoleic acids, isolated from this species possess anti-
diabetic properties (Boopathy and Kathiresan, 2010).
H
2
C
CH
2
1,37-octatriacontadiene (octadecomol)
NOSTOC
S P.
Phylum: Cyanobacteria
Class: Cyanophyceae
Order: Nostocales
Family: Nostocaceae
Habitat: Freshwater habitats
Description: This unidentiied species forms colonies made of moniliform ila-
ments. The cells are covered in a gelatinous sheath.
Compounds and activities: The bioactive compound isolated from this uniden-
tiied species is cryptophycin, which is cytotoxic acting against human
tumor cell lines. This compound may be a promising drug ingredient in
many cancer therapies (Trimurtulu et al., 1994).
ENHYDRA FLUCTUANS
LOUR
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Asteriales
Family: Asteriaceae
