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Medicinal Prospects of Marine Flora and Fauna for Drug Discovery

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Marine Niche: Applications in Pharmaceutical Sciences

Abstract

Marine ecology consists of major forms of life that exist on the earth. Approximately 230,000 marine species are estimated according to the World Register of Marine Species. Marine flora and fauna are tremendously valuable oceanic resources, which contribute to the major part of the oceanic biomass. They are taxonomically diverse, biologically potent, productive, and chemically inimitable in nature. The marine flora contain medicinally useful metabolites in abundance that include polyphenols, alkaloids, and sulfated polysaccharides. It has shown great role in pharmacological properties against cancer, microbial pathogenesis, malaria, viral diseases, inflammation, and diabetes. The phytochemicals possibly activate macrophages, reduce oxidative stressĀ and thus help in immunomodulation. Though marine niche has rich phytochemical diversity, yet it is considered majorly untapped or unexplored. Therefore, a vast number of new biomolecules such as enzymes, polymers, and osmolytes from the marine biotic community are being studied, and there is a growing interest in the industrial production of biomimetics and combinatorial synthesis of naturally occurring marine bioactive principles and their derivatives. Herein, we present a detailed and most comprehensive account of diverse group of bioactive compounds isolated from marine flora and fauna for biomedical applications in this chapter. Further, we have included a detailed account of the mechanism of actions and scientific rationale of these potential drug candidates.

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Shah, S., Ghosh, S. (2020). Medicinal Prospects of Marine Flora and Fauna for Drug Discovery. In: Nathani, N.M., Mootapally, C., Gadhvi, I.R., Maitreya, B., Joshi, C.G. (eds) Marine Niche: Applications in Pharmaceutical Sciences . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5017-1_18

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