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VISAKHAPATNAM: The researchers at Andhra University , in a major discovery, have found anti-microbial properties in short-nosed tripod fish from coastal waters in Visakhapatnam.

They harnessed the muscle extracts of the fish and screened it for its in vitro activity against human pathogens. The researchers carried out the antimicrobial screening assay on five bacterial pathogens — Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Vibrio cholerae and Staphylococcus aureus — using the standard methods. The results confirmed a positimicrobes used in the experiment. NM Krishna and V Govinda Rao, former researchers at the department of marine living resources of Andhra University, said that for several decades finding bioactive compounds from fish has always been of great significance.

“Only a fraction of natural products isolated from marine organisms has been examined so far for pharmacological activity. In earlier studies, the secondary metabolites derived from several marine organisms possessed antimicrobial and anti-cancer properties, some of them are now under clinical trials.

In the present study, the muscle extract from short-nosed tripod fish was screened for its in vitro activity against human pathogens,” they said. NM Krishna is currently working as a senior research fellow in Central Institute of Fisheries (CIFT) and V Govinda Rao as an assistant professor in Adikavi Nannaya University .

The freshly collected samples were identified and washed immediately to remove mud and other particles and brought to the laboratory in a frozen condition. A 50 gram chopped tissue samples were placed on the solvent methanol and acetone separately in 1:3 ratio for 24 hours at normal room temperature. The extracts were then filtered by Whatman filter paper. The solvents were concentrated by rotary evaporator under reduced pressure and temperature, the resultant residues were stored at 4 degrees Celsius for further analysis.

According to K Jyothi from the department of botany and S Geetha from the department of microbiology, muscle extract of the short-nosed tripod fish showed considerable inhibitory activity against Gram-negative bacteria within a short span of time in their analysis. “The tripod fish can also be examined for other pharmaceutical applications with sustainable conservation. Based on the assay conducted and surveyed literatures, we concluded that the fish has a potential antimicrobial activity of many polar compounds, particularly against V. cholerae, E.coli and S.typhi,” they said.

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