Marine algae development

Poller (498, 544) prepared a number of tributyl- and triphenyl-stan-nyl esters of sucrose hydrogenphthalate and succinate, and found that, as potential antifoulants, these were at least three times as effective against the marine alga, Enteromorpka, as bis(tributyltin) oxide, even though they contain almost one third the tin (see Table VIII). A new antifouling paint that also contains tributyltin compounds has recently been developed in Norway (545). 

Representative nickel-sensitive aquatic species show sublethal effects at 11.7 to 125 pg Ni/L. These effects include altered immunoregulatory mechanisms in tissues of the rainbow trout at 11.7 pg/L (Bowser etal. 1994), inhibited reproduction of daphnids at 30 pg/L, growth inhibition of freshwater and marine algae at 30 to 125 pg/L, reduced growth of rainbow trout at 35 pg/L, accumulation from the medium by mussels at 56 pg/L, and abnormal development of sea urchin embryos at 58 pg/L (NRCC 1981 WHO 1991 Outridge and Scheuhammer 1993 Table 6.7). 

Cereals can yield around 1500-3000 litres of gasoline equivalent (lge)/ha sugarcane, 3000-6000 lge/ha sugarheet, 2000-4000 lge/ha vegetable oil crops, 700-1300 litres of diesel equivalent (lde)/ha and palm oil, 2500-3000 lde/ha (IEA, 2007). In addition, there are novel biofuel production processes under development, for example biodiesel from marine algae, which are claimed to have a 15 times higher yield per ha than rapeseed. 

The marine environment is a vast resource for the discovery of structurally unique bioactive secondary metabolites, some belonging to totally novel chemical classes.8 Sessile benthic organisms including the Porifera, Cnidaria, Bryozoa, and Tunicata as well as marine algae have developed an arsenal of compounds which have been demonstrated to confer a competitive advantage in ecosystems characterized by extreme resource limitations. Interactions of these organisms at the genetic,... 

A very neat intramolecular Diels-Alder route has been developed for the synthesis of the ketone (466) which can be converted into selina-3,7(ll)-diene (467) (Scheme 58). Attempts to synthesize the cycloeudesmol obtained from the marine alga Chondria oppositiclada Dawson have so far not been successful. 

Rees, T. A. V., Larson, T. R., Heldens, J. W. G., and Huning, E. G. J. (1995). In situ glutamine synthetase activity in a marine unicellular alga (Development of a sensitive colorimetric assay and the effects of nitrogen status on enzyme activity). Plant Physiol. 109, 1405—1410. 

Furthermore, the results achieved sowed the seeds for future developments which are under investigation in ENSCR/CEVA laboratories (1) the exploration of additional marine algae as sources of innovative carbohydrate-based materials and (2) the possibility of exploiting intact oligoalginates as original hydrophilic moieties for the production of new surfactants and glycopolymers. 

Katayama reported volatiles of some air-dried green marine algae at the early stages of gas chromatography (GC) development (3). In recent years, we have explored volatile compounds in fifty or more species of wet and undecomposed seaweeds in Japan green seaweeds Ulva pertusa. Monostroma nitidum, and Enteromorpha clathrata brown seaweeds Laminaria japonica and Undaria pinnatifida, and red seaweeds Porphyra tenera and Porphyra yezoensis by GC and GC-mass spectrometry (MS). 

As modern lifestyles and new feeding habits settle in the world, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have evolved to be major causes of disability in developing as well as developed countries. As a concomitant effect, there is a growing interest in natural, healthy food and an increasing awareness of risk factors and determinants of disease. This chapter describes some nutritional facts about seaweeds, which have been used as food since ancient times in China, Japan, Egypt, and India and comments on the potential utilization of marine algae as functional foods. 

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