Marine organisms research directions

Although the successes of natural product chemistry after World War 11 are impressively reflected in particular in the development of the antibiotics, medical-pharmaceutical research has been directed at marine organisms as a source of interesting secondary metabolites only since about 1970. The structural diversity of these compounds is equal to that of the metabolites of the terrestrial streptomycetes. Up to 1999, about 16000 m. n. p. have been described. 120 of them made it into drug development, which is a high success rate. The rapidly increasing number of publications and patents on the subject, especially since 1980, illustrates the ever-increasing importance of this field in medical research. 

In 2009, research on POPs in the world oceans were studied at an international workshop on the occurrence, effects, and fate of nticroplas-tic debris (University of Washington 2009). The workshop focused on small plastic debris in the oceans, including the amount, location, and environmental impacts of small plastics. Participants presented current research of microplastic occurrence and movement in the oceans, direct effects of micro plastics on marine organisms, interactions of POPs with plastics and the potential for plastics to adsorb and desorb these pollutants in the marine environment and to organisms, and the effect plastics could have on the cycling of POPs. 

As emphasized above in the summary of A. convoluta research, B. neritina contains very potent antineoplastic constituents with the capacity to intrude upon or otherwise become associated with certain other marine organisms. Therefore, the possibility of Bugula contamination should be considered prior to selecting a new marine animal for detailed chemical study directed at isolation of possible antineoplastic constituents. 

Seawater, available at the premises of the Royal Netherlands Navy s Chemical Laboratory, was sub-sampled. This coastal seawater was initially collected at about lOm water depth, in the nearby tidal channel (Marsdiep). The water passed a sand filter directly after collection, in order to remove larger particles and organisms. About lOm seawater was thus collected in a glass-fibre tank and transported to the TNO Laboratory for Applied Marine Research, at Den Helder, where it was contained in a concrete basin, treated with a metal-free paint. In this basin the suspended particulate matter was allowed to settle for 4 weeks. This water served as source material for the candidate CRM, and had a salinity of 28 %o. 

While we accept that such an approach at the moment appears to be some solution in appeasing the appetite for data concerning organic compounds in the marine environment, it will however direct research to the monitoring of bulk biochemical processes and may reveal little more information than elemental analysis. 

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