Pankaj Gupta
Aug 5, 2017
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Natural products chemistry & research
Abstract
Marine ecosystem constitutes one of the major domains of life and among the 34 fundamental phyla of life, 17 have been reported on land while 32 of them are found in sea (with some overlaps) [1]. The reports on the first bioactive marine compounds viz. spongothymidine and spongouridine dates back more than 65 years from the Caribbean sponge Cryptotheca crypta in the early 1950s [2]. Thereof, there has been eventual investigation of novel bioactive constituents from marine sources and till date several therapeutic agents of marine origin are available that are used for the treatment of various diseases and ailments. Marine Natural Products bioprospecting has yielded a considerable number of drug candidates such as ziconotide which is a potent analgesic for severe chronic pain, trabectedin which is an antitumor agent used for the treatment of soft tissue carcinoma, cytarabine which is used for the treatment of acute lymphocytic leukemia and vidarabine that is used for the treatment of acute keratoconjunctivitis and recurrent epithelial keratitis caused by the herpes simplex virus [3].