Seas and oceans offer a wide range of temperature, pressure, light and chemical conditions thus allowing a wide diversity of marine organisms from shallow coastal waters to the deep ocean. These resources can be used to obtain new products and develop services, and in turn help to provide solutions to the challenges that affect our planet, including offering a sustainable supply of food and energy, new industrial materials and processes, new bioactive compounds, and new health treatments. Marine compounds have been identified as having antibacterial, anticoagulant, antifungal, antimalarial, antiprotozoal, antituberculosis, and antiviral activities. The major sources of these bioactive compounds are marine sponges, coelenterates, and microorganisms, followed by algae, echinoderms, tunicates, molluscs, and bryozoans. The discovery of bioactive compounds from marine samples is a hot topic considering the current need for sustainable use of marine resources. This book is a comprehensive overview of the analytical techniques employed in the discovery and characterization of bioactive compounds isolated from (all possible) marine samples and gives future perspectives of analytical methodologies. This overview includes an assessment of the sampling and preparation of extracts, the separation and isolation of bioactive compounds, their structural characterization and the application of bioassays in the discovery of bioactive compounds.

One Health: Challenges for the 21st Century is a transdisciplinary approach to health, considering the interdependency of human, animal, and environmental health. This approach to health promotion and disease prevention calls for integrative and interdisciplinary cooperation. From zoonotic diseases to environmental degradation, this book introduces core concepts of the One Health approach by presenting focal key challenges. The objective of this book is not centered solely on epidemiologic interactions of infectious diseases but also on the environmental and ecological implications of current major threats. Written by international experts, the ten chapters provide a comprehensive approach consisting of core concepts, practical examples, and applications that align with key challenges to public health. Therefore, this book is a valuable resource for public health professionals, veterinarians, physicians, environmental researchers, policymakers, and other professionals who seek to understand the overarching complexities of health.

Characterization and Analysis of Microplastics, Volume 75 presents the latest information on new and published analytical methodologies for the identification and quantification of microplastics. This series focuses on a variety of interesting topics surrounding the field of microplastics, with this new release in the series covering sampling and sample handing, the characterization of microplastics by raman spectroscopy, and techniques for assessing the chemical compounds related to microplastics. Users will find a variety of useful information that includes morphological, physical and chemical characterizations, along with analytical techniques and future perspectives of analytical methodologies in this rapidly advancing field.

Soil Pollution: From Monitoring to Remediation provides comprehensive information on soil pollution, including causes, distribution, transport, the transformation and fate of pollutants in soil, and metabolite accumulation. The book covers organic, inorganic and nanoparticle pollutants and methodologies for their monitoring. Features a critical discussion on ecotoxicological and human effects of soil pollution, and strategies for soil protection and remediation. Meticulously organized, this is an ideal resource for students, researchers and professionals, providing up-to-date foundational content for those already familiar with the field. Chapters are highly accessible, offering an authoritative introduction for non-specialists and undergraduate students alike.

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.