Marine Pharmacognosy

Book excerpt: Diverse and abundant, marine-derived bioactive compounds offer a plethora of pharmacologically active agents with the potential to produce valuable therapeutic entities. Marine-derived organisms, including some macroalgae, microalgae, blue-green algae, invertebrates, and vertebrates—valued in traditional Chinese medicine since ancient times—are now recognized as rich sources of pharmaceutically active compounds. These factors, coupled with the growing need for novel bioactives for the treatment of severe human diseases such as cancer, diabetes, microbial infections, and inflammatory processes, has brought marine pharmaceuticals to the forefront of pharmacology. Marine Pharmacognosy: Trends and Applications provides a comprehensive account of marine-derived bioactive pharmaceuticals and their potential health benefits, including antioxidant, anticancer, antiviral, anticoagulant, antidiabetic, antiallergy, anti-inflammatory, antihypertensive, antibacterial, and radioprotective activities. Moreover, it discusses the sources, isolation and purification, chemistry, functionality interactions, applications, and industrial features of a variety of marine-derived pharmaceuticals. Marine pharmacognosy is a dynamic field that has been systematically investigated over the last 50 years, and the number of publications and patents are increasing every year. Bringing together a global team of experts, Marine Pharmacognosy: Trends and Applications reviews current research on marine-derived bioactive compounds and provides insight into future research on their potential as pharmacologically active agents.