Bioactivity and phycochemical studies on Microspora Floccosa (chlorophycota) from sindh

Microspora floccosa (vaucher) thuret [= prolifera floccosa vaucher],a filamentous green alga was collected from river indus at power house station,near hyderabad and extracted with methanol. the extract displayed a strong antimicrobial activity against 14 bacterial and 20 fungal species. eleven saturated and 11 unsaturated fatty acids were found in the extracts where former were lesser in quantity (47.4 %) than the latter ones (52.6 %). palmitic acid (c 16:0) was present in the highest amount (12.3 %),while oleic acid (c 18:1) was detected in an appreciable proportion (6.1 %). two sterols and two terpenes were also obtained from the extract,which were chemically elucidated as cholesterol,24-isopropyl- 5-cholesten-3β-ol,trans-phytol and cyclopterospermol.