Antibacterial and Antifouling Properties of the Horseshoe Crab Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda

M.N. Mohd Faizal, N. Ismail, Ibrahim M.S. Eldeen and T. Mariam

Background and Objective: Horseshoe crabs are widely used in both traditional and modern pharmaceutical applications. Most of the previous studies on horseshoe crabs focused on their blood which contains hemolymph and amoebocyte lysate. This study aimed to determine the potential antibacterial and antifouling properties of different extracts from the carapace and the book gills of Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda. Materials and Methods: The crude extracts were subjected to the bioactivity tests using the disc-diffusion and the inhibition of biofilm-formation measurement assays, for both the antibacterial and antifouling activities respectively. Results: The results obtained indicated that the carapace extracts had stronger antibacterial and antifouling effects compared to the book gills extracts. Extracts obtained from the male displayed more activity compared to the extracts from the female with a few exceptions. Methanol and acetone carapace crude extracts showed the best overall performance. A sterol compound was isolated from the carapace acetone extracts of the male of C. rotundicauda. However, the compound did not display strong activity compared to the crude extract. The compound might be contributing to the observed activity with other components through a synergistic effect. Conclusion: The presence of antibacterial and antifouling activities in the carapace and book gills extracts could be added to the complexity of the defence mechanisms of horseshoe crabs. The results of this study, therefore, may contribute to the knowledge of the defence mechanisms of C. rotundicauda. Further research is needed to determine the bioactivities of other parts of the animal and to explore their potential applications.

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