Antimicrobial peptide from euphlyctis hexadactylus and its efficacy against plant pathogens

The Indian green frog (Euphlyctis hexadactylus) is a common species existing in aquatic environment. The skin secretions of these frogs have potential antimicrobial peptides. It inhibited growth of pathogenic gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and opportunistic fungal pathogens and also treated plant fungal diseases. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the peptide, against the human pathogenic bacteria and fungus ranging between 128 to 512 µg / ml and 32 to 64 µg / ml respectively. The result of growth inhibition against plant fungal pathogen, maximum zone was obtained from Fusarium oxysporum (36 ± 0.5 mm) and minimum zone of inhibition from Rhizoctonia solani (24 ± 01 mm). The results clearly indicate the crude skin secretions of green frog (Euphlyctis hexadactylus) contain strong antifungal activity and conclusively demonstrated that these frog secretions are having immense potential as agricultural antimicrobial agents. However, the nature and sequences of these peptides are yet to be elucidated.