Amin Oujifard

In the present report, we focused on the screening of antibacterial, hemolytic and cytotoxic activities of Holothuria parva sea cucumber from the Persian Gulf for potential application in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products. Ethanol, methanol and aqueous extracts of H. parva were prepared by maceration of milled body wall pieces. Cytotoxicity of extracts was tested using brine shrimp lethality assay. Antibacterial activity of extracts was tested against Vibrio alginolyticus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Shigella fexneri Salmonella group D, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus by serial dilution method. Hemolytic activity of extracts was performed using human erythrocytes. Results showed bacterial inhibition of ethanolic and methanolic extracts against E. coli, V. parahaemolyticus and S. aureus at concentrations higher than 20 µg/ ml and minimum bactericidal concentration was observed for ethanolic and methanolic extracts at 500 mg/µl against E. coli. The median lethal concentration for brine shrimp was lowest (61.25±8.53) for methanolic extracts, which shows this extract is more toxic against tested organisms. The methanolic and ethanolic extracts of H. parva showed a high level of hemolytic activity (0.62±0.12 and 0.54±0.9) to tested erythrocytes and were comparable to standard pure saponin, but no such activity was found in aqueous extracts.