Studies on haemolytic properties of puffer fishes from South East Coast of India

Marine fishes play an important role for health care. The objectives of the present study was to evaluate the haemolytic activity of crude extracts of six puffer fishes Cyclichthys orbicularis, Diodon holocanthus, Canthigaster solandri, Arthron hispidus, A. inermis and Lagocephalua inermis collected from Parangipettai, Tamil Nadu, South East Coast of India. The haemolytic activity was tested against red blood cells (RBCs) of chicken, goat and human blood. The haemolytic activity was high in chicken blood (128HU) against of Cyclichthys orbicularis and A. inermis and minimum (16HU) in Lagocephalua inermis. In goat erythrocytes the highest haemolytic activity (256HU) against Arthron hispidus and minimum (16HU) against A. inermis and Lagocephalua inermis were observed. In human erythrocytes the maximum haemolytic activity of 32HU against Cyclichthys orbicularis, Arthron hispidus were recorded. In blood agar plate assay the highest zone of inhibition of 6.4±0.9 and 6.3±0.1 mm were observed in A. inermis against chicken erythrocytes and Arthron hispidus against goat erythrocytes respectively. The results strongly suggest that, the Marine puffer fish extracts showed good cytolytic properties against blood RBCs.