Evaluation on Antimicrobial Activity of Jellyfish Cnidae Derived Extracts from the Jellyfish (Crambionella orsini) of the South East Coast of India

Jellyfish venom found in tentacle nematocysts have been implicated in human injuries and even deaths. The present study assessed antimicrobial properties of crude venom extract toxins from cnidocytes of Crambionella orsini, Vanhöffen, 1888 that were collected from Parangipettai coast. Nematocysts crude extracts showed effective antibacterial activity against five bacterial pathogens (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella paratyphi, and Staphylococcus aureus) and five fungal pathogens (Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, Rhizopus sp. Mucor sp. and Penicillium sp.). The highest antibacterial activity was observed against Escherichia coli with the n-Butanol extract (6.36 ± 0.38 mm), while Salmonella paratyphi showed a maximum inhibition zone of 5.68 ± 0.40 mm with the chloroform extract. The extracts also showed antifungal activity against five fungal pathogens (Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, Rhizopus sp., Mucor sp., and Penicillium sp.), with the highest inhibition recorded against Aspergillus flavus using the chloroform extract (6.22 ± 0.52 mm). The observed antimicrobial activities may be attributed to bioactive toxins or secondary metabolites present in the nematocyst crude extracts. The findings were compared with previous studies on Chrysaora quinquecirrha (Suganthi et al., 2012), which showed comparatively higher antimicrobial potency. This study supports ongoing investigations into biologically active compounds from jellyfish nematocysts and tentacles, highlighting their potential pharmacological applications.