Screening and Partial Purification of Cholinesterase Inhibitor from Microalgae

The present study was carried out to screen microalgae for anticholinesterases. Acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase were collected from human RBC ghost and sera respectively. Different algal species were collected from different study area and they were screened, isolated and cultivated with essential media. Crude extracts of the selected microalgae were fractionated by sequential extraction using various organic solvents (petroleum ether, chloroform, acetone and methanol). Cholinesterase enzyme activity and inhibitory activity were performed. Chloroform extract of Oscillatoria sp. showed maximum inhibition of 87.53% against acetylcholinesterase and acetone extract of Phormidium sp. showed maximum inhibition of 36.11% to butyrylcholinesterase. Eight fractions were isolated by TLC and the maximum inhibitory activity towards acetylcholinesterase was shown by the fraction 3 with the inhibition of 70.93 %, followed by fraction 8 with the inhibition of 60.12 %. The minimum inhibitory activity towards acetylcholinesterase was shown by fraction 1 with the inhibition of 43.03%. Functional groups of fraction no. 3 were determined and identified by FTIR.