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Bioactive substances from aquatic sources
(Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, 2005) Mathew, S.
Natural products have long been used as foods, fragrances, pigments, insecticides, medicines, etc. Due to their easy accessibility, terrestrial plants have served as the major source of medicinally useful products, especially for traditional or folk medicine. About 25% of all pharmaceutical sales are drugs derived from natural plant products and an additional 12% are from microbial source. The marine environment covers a wide thermal range (from the below freezing temperatures in Antarctic waters to about 350°C in deep hydrothermal vents), pressure range (1-1000 atm), nutrient range (oligotrophic to eutrophic) and it has wide ranging photic and non-photic zones. This extensive variability has facilitated extensive speciation at all phylogenetic levels, from microorganisms to mammals. Despite the fact that the biodiversity in the marine environment far exceeds that of the terrestrial environment, research into the use of marine natural products as pharmaceutical agents is still in its infancy. This may be due to the lack of ethno-medical history and the difficulties involved in the collection of marine organisms. But with the development of new techniques, it is possible to collect marine samples and during the past decade, over 5000 novel compounds have been isolated from marine sources.