Antifouling potential of the marine microalga Dunaliella salina.

Marine organisms have usually been viewed as sources of environmentally friendly compounds with antifouling activity. We performed a series of operations to investigate the antifouling potential of the marine microalga Dunaliella salina. For the ethyl acetate crude extract, the antialgal activity was significant, and the EC50 value against Skeletonema costatum was 58.9 μg ml(-1). The isolated purified extract was tested for antifouling activity, the EC 50 value against S. costatum was 21.2 μg ml(-1), and the LC50 against Balanus amphitrite larvae was 18.8 μg ml(-1). Subsequently, both UHR-TOF-MS and GC-MS were used for the structural elucidation of the compounds, and a series of unsaturated and saturated 16- and 18-carbon fatty acids were detected. The data suggested that the fatty acid extracts from D. salina possess high antifouling activity, and could be used as substitutes for potent, toxic antifouling compounds.