Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHARA CORALLINA
KLEIN EX WILLDENON
Phylum: Charophyta Class: Charophyceae
Order: Charales Family: Characeae
Common name: Stone wort, brittle wort, shunkweed
Distribution: Malaysia, Australia
Habitat: Ponds, pools, lakes
Description: This species, which is anchored by underground branching rhi-
zoids, has dimorphic branches, viz., long branches of unlimited growth
and short branches of limited growth. It is capable of reproducing by both
sexual and vegetative methods.
Compounds and activities: From the methanolic extracts of this species bioac-
tive compounds such as hexadecadienoic acid (23.7%), pentadecyclic acid,
palmitic acid, β-sitosterol (76.8%), cholesterol, and stigmasterol have been
isolated. These compounds act against
S. aureus
,
Streptococcus pyrogenes
,
and
Vibrio cholerae
. The value of zone of inhibition diameter (mm) for
these bacterial species was found to be 6 at a methanol extract concen-
tration of 400 µg/ml. This extract also showed antifungal activity toward
Allescheria boydii
,
Aspertgillus niger
,
Curvularia lunata
,
Microsporum
canis
,
Nigrospora oryzae
,
Pleuroetus austreatus
,
Stachybotrys atra
, and
Trichophyton mentagrophytes
( Khaliq- uz- Zaman, 1998).
