Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Sea Cucumber (Holothuria tubulosa, Gmelin 1791) Extracts

Holothuria tubulosa is an economic and most harvested sea cucumber species found in Turkey seas. Sea cucumbers are known to be sources of some of bioactive components which are play important roles in human health. In this study, it was aimed to determine the antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of H. tubulosa. The extracts of H. tubulosa were obtained with using different solvents such as, acetonitrile/trifloroacetic acid, methanol, and water/methanol. According to results, antioxidant activity of the extracts was lower than the reference antioxidant agents at all concentrations. However, the activity at higher concentrations of extracts was found to be closer to reference agents. Bacteriostatic effect was observed after the concentration of 12 μg/ml for all bacteria except Bacillus cereus, which has also shown resistance to reference antibiotic. As a consequence, H. tubulosa found in Turkey seas may be regarded as potential source of natural antioxidant agent