Abstract

ISOLATION OF PIGMENT PRODUCING HALOPHILIC BACTERIA FROM MARAKKANAM SALT PANS AND EVALUATION OF THEIR ANTIOXIDANT ABILITY

Rajendiran Krishnan*, Annamalai Paneerselvam, Asokaraja Ilavarasi and Noorudin Thajuddin

ABSTRACT

Halophilic organisms are a type of extremophiles that survive in the environment with very high salt concentration. In the current study, pigment producing halophilic bacteria was isolated from the salterns of Marakkanam, Tamilnadu, India. Most of the colonies were pink, pale pink, orange, cream, white, yellow, pinkish orange and pale yellow in colour. The gram staining results showed the presence of gram positive rods and cocci, gram negative rods and pleomorphic rods. The biochemical test such as indole, methyl red, Voges Proskauer, citrate, amino acid and carbohydrate utilization were performed. Further, the pigments were extracted from all the 25 isolates and analyzed for its antioxidant activity. The isolates S2, S6, S15, S17 and S19 showed remarkable antioxidant activity. Out of these, S15 showed the highest activity of about 51.04% and S1 showed the least antioxidant activity about 32.06%. This preliminary study showed that the pigment producing halophilic bacteria may be explored in various industries for different applications.

Keywords: Halophilic bacteria, pigment, salt pan, antioxidant.