Antifouling activity as a function of population variation in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sargassum vulgare</Emphasis> from the littoral of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)

The brown seaweed Sargassum vulgare is abundant along the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. An investigation of the spatial variation of antifouling activity was conducted, in which algae were collected at five locations along the coast of Rio de Janeiro during October 2008. Hexane, dichloromethane, methanol and acetone/water extracts were prepared and screened for their bioactivities against the growth of five strains of marine fouling bacteria, five biofilm-associated microphytobenthic strains and attachment of the mussel Perna perna. The most active were the hexane extracts from Bananal algae that inhibited the growth of all microalgae tested; the methanol and dichloromethane extracts from Mar do Norte, which inhibited Vibrio aestuarianus and Pseudoalteromonas elyakovii and the polyphenol extracts from Ilha de Itacuruçá and Bananal that inhibited mussel attachment, respectively, by 64% and 71% compared to controls.