Screening of Seaweed Degradation Microorganism and Its Agricultural Application

Abstract

For many years, microorganisms and seaweed have been widely used to increase food production and crop productivity in many regions of the world through its beneficial effects. In the present study, a new process to produce a bioactive extract from the micro fermentation of brown seaweeds was developed. The optimized conditions of pH, inoculum size, seaweed concentration and temperature allowed high extraction yields of alginates represented up to 33% of the seaweeds dry weight, compared to 25% for conventional extraction procedure. Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Gel Permeation Liquid Chromatography (GPC) were used in the alginate characterization, respectively. The sample analyzed had similar infrared absorption peak and molecular weight around 500 kDa of sodium alginate. Furthermore, the antimicrobial activity and influence on plant growth from seaweed fermentation extracts were evaluated. The results demonstrate that the seaweed fermentation extracts may provide a useful tool for the control of different pathogens microorganism and in the same time promote the plant growth.