Classification of Marine Natural Products - Chemistry and Bioactivity

Enthusiasm of the scientific community towards the discovery of new drug leads from marine habitats is unquenchable. Marine natural products have been recognized as a source of highly desirable chemodiversity to support drug discovery and pharmacology applications by the diverse chemical features and the wide range of biological activities possessed by them. According to the latest review by Blunt et a,l., 1378 new compounds were isolated from marine organisms in 2014 compared with 332 in 1984 (Blunt et al., 2016; Faulkner, 1994). Marine flora and fauna play a momentous role as a foundation of new molecular entity. Over 5 million species of the world in about 30 different phyla reside in the oceans. Because of the diversities of marine organism and habitats, marine natural products enfold a wide variety of chemical classes, including Terpenes, Shikimates, Polyketides, Acetogenins, Peptides, and Alkaloids of varying structures and multitude of compounds of mixed biosynthesis. These natural products are secondary metabolites and enhance survival fitness and may serve as chemical weapons used against bacteria, fungi, viruses and small or large animals. A good number of the natural products of interest to the pharmaceutical industry are secondary metabolites and several such compounds, derived from marine organisms, have been in clinical trials as experimental drugs. Over the past 50 years, numerous novel compounds have been isolated from marine flora and fauna having biological activities such as antibacterial, antiviral, antitumor, antiparasitic, anticoagulants, antimicrobial, antiinflammatory and cardiovascular compounds