ABSTRACT
The world’s oceans, covering more than 70% of the earth’s surface, represent an enormous resource for the discovery of promising therapeutic agents. Among 36 known living phyla, 34 of them are found in marine environments with more than 300,000+ known species of fauna and ora (Jirge and Chaudhari 2010). Although few marine natural products are currently on the market or in clinical trials, marine organisms have been known as the greatest unexploited source of potential pharmaceuticals. Due to the unusual diversity of chemical structures, marine organisms have received much attention in screening marine natural products for their biomedical potential (Haefner 2003; Newman and Cragg 2004; Molinski et al. 2009). During the last decades, marine organisms such as algae, tunicates, sponges, soft corals, bryozoans, sea slugs, mollusks, echinoderms, shes, and microorganisms have been subjected to the isolation of numerous novel compounds. They have signicant amounts of lipid, protein, peptide, acid amine, polysaccharides, chlorophyll, carotenoids, vitamins, minerals, and unique pigments (Faulkner 2001, 2002; Blunt et al. 2006). Notably, many of these compounds possess interesting biological activities and health benet effects such as anticoagulant, antivirus, antioxidant, antiallergy, anticancer, anti-inammation, and antiobesity (Blunden 2001; El Gamal 2010; Wijesekara et al. 2010; Gupta and Abu-Ghannam 2011; Mayer et al. 2011). Therefore, marine organisms are regarded as a huge source of novel biomaterials for the development of pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries.
