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Green alga Ulva pertusa—a new source of bioactive compounds with antialgal activity

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Abstract

We tested the effects of solvent fractions (FA, FB, FC, and FD), which partitioned by liquid-liquid extraction from the methanol extract of Ulva pertusa, on the growth of red tide microalgae (Karenia mikimitoi, Skeletonema costatum, Alexandrium tamarense, Heterosigma akashiwo, Prorocentrum donghaiense), and FA, FB, and FC exhibited significantly antialgal activity. The chemical constituent analysis showed the existence of bioactive compounds such as phenols and alkaloids. Further, four solvent fractions were applied to silica gel column and repeated preparative TLC to produce 13 samples and their purity qualified as thin-layer chromatographic grade. Among these purified samples, FA111, FB411, FC411, FD111, and FD211 exhibited stronger antialgal activity. Furthermore, their functional groups were analyzed by colorimetric methods and UV spectra data. FD111 and FD211 were temptatively identified as alkaloids; the others were initially identified as phenolic acids. This is a preliminary study and the structure identification of these purified samples requires further investigation. While concentration of these purified samples in this algae was very small, they showed excellent effects against red tide microalgae.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. BinlunYan for his kind supply of U. pertusa, and Prof. Changhai Wang for his great help with the revision of the manuscript. This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (BK20140446), a Project Funded by a Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD), the project of Jiangsu key laboratory of marine biotechnology of Huaihai Institute of Technology of China (2013HS010), and the Lianyungang Programs for Science and Technology Development (CG1310).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology, Huaihai Institute of Technology, Lianyungang, 222005, China

    Sun Ying-ying, Guo Gan-lin, Pu Yin-fang & Yan Bin-lun

  2. Co-Innovation Center of Jiangsu Marine Bio-industry Technology, Lianyungang, 222005, China

    Sun Ying-ying & Yan Bin-lun

  3. Beijing Institute of Medical Device Testing, Beijing, 101111, People’s Republic of China

    Wang Hui

  4. Resources and Environment Science Institute, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, China

    Wang Chang-hai

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  1. Sun Ying-ying
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  2. Wang Hui
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  3. Guo Gan-lin
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  4. Pu Yin-fang
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  5. Yan Bin-lun
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Correspondence to Yan Bin-lun.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Ying-ying, S., Hui, W., Gan-lin, G. et al. Green alga Ulva pertusa—a new source of bioactive compounds with antialgal activity. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 10351–10359 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4244-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4244-x

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