Halocynthia aurantium

Figure 8 Venomous animals with chemotherapeutic potential, (a) Vampire bat (Desmodus rotundas (http // www.Animalpicturesarchive.com)) (b) medicinal leech [Hirudo medicinalis)-, (c) oriental fire-bellied toad (Bombina orientalis)-, (d) phantasmal poison frog [Epipedobates tricolor), (e) solitary tunicate sea peach Halocynthia aurantium), (f) glia monster (Heloderma suspectum). Photos (b)-(f) by I. Boyd (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License), H. Van (Public domain), L. Ghoul (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License), A. Rode (Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License) and Arpingstone (Public domain), respectively. See website for photo credit (a).

Smith M.X 1970. The blood cells and tunic of the ascidian Halocynthia aurantium (Pallas). I. Hematology, tunic morphology, and partition of cells between blood and tunic. Biol Bull 138 354-378. 

Terpene hydroquinones which are well known as constituents of other marine organisms have been isolated from the ascidian Aplidium constellatum, (750). These compounds demonstrated activity as anticancer agents. In the case of A. constellatum, 2-methyl-2-(4-methylpent-3-enyl)-2/f-chromen-6-ol could be identified. Five new carotenoids have been obtained from tunicates, halocynthiaxanthin (1067) (751) and mytiloxanthinone (1068) (752) from Halocynthia roretzi, sidnyax-anthin (1069) from Sidnyum argus (755) and amarouciaxanthin A (1070) and B (1071) from Amaroucium pliciferum (733a). Halocynthia aurantium furnished two known carotenoids, astaxanthin and diatoxan-... 

Among other antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) foimd recently are dicynthaurin and halocidin, both isolated from hemocytes of the same species, Halocynthia aurantium... 

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