Seaweed biological activity

Carlucci MJ, Pujol CA, Ciancia M, Noseda MD, Matulewicz MC, Damonte EB, Cerezo AS (1997) Antiherpetic and anticoagulant properties of carrageenans from the red seaweed Gigartina skottsbergii and their cyclized derivatives correlation between structure and biological activity. Int J Biol Macromol 20 97-105... 

Vitamin B12 is synthesized only by bacteria and possibly some algae. There are no plant sources of the vitamin, and no plant enzymes are known to require vitamin B12 as a coenzyme. A number of reports have suggested that vitamin Bi2 occurs in some algae, but this maybe the result of bacterial contamination of the water in which they were grown. Nori, made from the edible seaweed Porphyra tenera, has been reported to contain biologically active cobalamin when it is fresh but, on drying, there is a considerable loss of the vitamin as a result of the formation of inactive corrinoids (Yamada et al., 1999). 

The potent biological activity (insect antifeedant, antitumour, antifungal) of warburganal (35) has stimulated considerable synthetic interest in this compound. Three total syntheses of this compound have been recorded in the period under review. " The synthesis by Tanis and Nakanishi has additional flexibility since the key intermediate diol (34) can be used in the syntheses of cinnamolide (36), drimenin (37), and polygodial (38). Both norisoambreinolide (39 R = O) and isoambrox (39 R = H2) have been synthesized from (40), the product of the stannic chloride-catalysed cyclization of farnesyl phenyl sulphone. Yahazunol (41), a bicyclofarnesyl hydroquinone, has been identified in the brown seaweed... 

Alkaloids of Licopodium, synthesis and biological role 90JHC97. Alkaloids from blue seaweeds, pharmacological activity of 88PHA809. Aporphyne alkaloids of Liriodendron tulipifera 87KPS628. 

Tanaka Y, Waldron-Edward D, Skoryna SC. 1968b. Studies on the inhibition of intestinal absorption of radioactive strontium VII. Relationship of biological activity to chemical composition of alginates obtained from North American seaweeds. Can Med Assoc J 99 169-175. 

Scientific reports dealing with functional effects of seaweed proteins, peptides, amino acids, polysaccharides, phytochemicals, lipids, and minerals greatly endorse the efforts toward development of "health foods" using seaweeds. Table 1.1 provides some seaweed species studied and recognized for their richness in functionally important molecular groups. Evaluation of functional properties requires a clear idea about their biochemical composition, and it provides a platform to have an inspiration to decide on the molecules responsible for different biological activities. 

Hence, the emphasis on screening of MMPIs from different natural resources has gained much importance and marine resources are one among them. As marine organisms have been contributing with several biologically active compounds that have profound applications in nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, and pharmaceuticals in this chapter, an attempt has been made to discuss the various MMPIs from edible seaweeds, which could be considered as medicinal foods. 

It is a well-understood fact that marine flora harbors a wide range of biologically active compounds that are reported to have an outstanding prospective in the medicinal, nutraceutical, and cosmeceutical applications. Natural metabolites obtained from marine seaweeds prove to be abundant resources with chemical diversity, and among them, phlorotannins are studied most for fheir biological activities. These phlorotannins (Fig. 10.1) are derived from fannins and are composed of several phloroglucinol units linked to each other in different ways and mostly... 

Marine algae are potentially prolific sources of highly bioactive components that might represent useful leads in the development of new pharmaceutical agents and functional foods. This chapter discusses the current literature on biological activities of sulfated polysaccharides, fucoidans, from brown seaweeds. The profound functional properties of fucoidans could be employed in pharmaceutical, nutraceutical functional food, and cosmeceutical... 

At present, the field of marine natural products becomes more sophisticated. Seaweeds have drawn worldwide attention due to their involvement in many industrial applications. Seaweeds produce a variety of active components with different structures and interesting biological activities (Amarowicz et ah, 2004 Choi et ah, 2002 Kim and Bae, 2010 Kong et ah, 2009 Shibata et ah, 2008). The bioactive components isolated from seaweeds could be divided into polyphenols, peptides, polysaccharides, etc. Many of these active compoimds have been found to be useful functional ingredients in many industrial applications such as pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical, and fimctional food. 

TABLE 12.1 Biological activities of fucose-rich sulfated polysaccharides and fucoidan isolated from various brown seaweeds... 

In recent years, it has been reported that fucose-rich sulfated polysaccharides isolated from brown seaweeds exhibited antitumor activity which is one of the most important biological activities of seaweeds. 

In the field of pharmacology, the biologically active polysaccharides (PSs) that are derived from natural sources have attained a special place for the development of drug lead molecules. Marine macroalgae contain a significant amount of soluble PSs and have potential function as dietary fiber. Specially, brown marine algae are known to produce fimctional PSs such as alginates and fucoidans. Seaweed-derived PSs have been... 

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