The largely unexplored natural world harbours great biodiversity,
and provides a unique and rich source of natural products with
interesting pharmaceutical activities as well as potential
applications for environmental protection. Over the last few years,
much attention has been paid to unraveling the structural,
compositional and sequential properties of bioactive compounds, but
the exploration of new natural resources needs to be developed
wisely while keeping sustainability principles in mind. With the
help of some developed isolation techniques, researchers have been
able to elucidate new extraction methods applicable to both aquatic
and terrestrial organisms. Natural products have often been used in
medicine, food, fragrances, and pest control. Most likely due to
their easy accessibility, terrestrial plants have been the major
source of medicinal products, especially for traditional or folk
medicine. However, only 10% of over 250,000 plants have been
investigated for biological activity. On the other hand, aquatic
environments contain over 80% of worlds plant and animal species.
In recent years, several bioactive compounds have been extracted
from various marine organisms, such as tunicates, sponges,
starfish, soft corals, bryozoans, and sea cucumbers, among others.
The search for new metabolites from marine organisms has resulted
in the isolation of more than 10,000 metabolites, many of which are
endowed with pharmacodynamic properties. These natural products are
of high commercial value due to their natural source, complete
biodegradable properties, lower or no toxicity, and in most cases
lower cost compared to synthetic chemicals. Despite the
biodiversity in the marine environment overcoming that of the
terrestrial environment, the research into the use of natural
marine products as pharmaceutical agents and for environmental
applications is still in its early stages. In this context, this
book highlights some of the most recent advances in natural product
discovery over the past few years.
General
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