EFFECT OF MARINE BROWN ALGA LOBOPHORA VARIEGATA (J.V. LAMOUROUX) WOMERSLEY EX E. C. OLIVEIR VARIOUS SOLVENTS EXTRACTS ON DERMATOPHYTES

We here in the report the investigation of the antifungal activity of various solvent extracts obtained from a marine brown alga, Lobophora variegata against three fungal dermatophytes, namely Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and a nondermatophyte Aspergillus flavus using disc diffusion method. Among the solvent extracts tested in the investigation, only the methanol extract of the L. variegata exhibited better antifungal activity against all the fungi and chloroform extract was able to elicit activity against C. albicans and T. mentagarophytes. On the other hand, the extract of the L. variegata obtained from ethyl acetate was active against C. albicans only. In contrast to the methanol and chloroform extracts, the aqueous and hexane extracts of the L. variegata were found to be least effective and showed no observable activity against any of the test fungi. The investigation demonstrated that the methanol extract of brown alga L. variegata is more effective on dermatophyte fungi.