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Título : Seaweeds
Otros títulos : A valuable source of novel drugs from the sea
Autor: Mihai, Raluca Alexandra
Jadán, Mónica
Kefalas, Panagiotis
Roussis, Vassilios
Palabras clave : SEAWEEDS
A valuable source of novel drugs from the sea
Fecha de publicación : 23-dic-2016
Editorial: Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE
Abstract: The intrinsic processes of conception, growth, and maintenance of living organisms are inexplicably associated with deleterious oxidative processes. In most living organisms, oxygen is not only necessary for life, but is also a major cause of damaging processes and death. The harmful effects of oxidative processes in living organisms, in addition to chemical and biochemical media, can be reduced by antioxidants (Simic, 1998). Recently, many researchers have thought to find safe and effective natural antioxidants that can substitute current commercial synthetic antioxidants such as BHA and BHT, which can cause potential health hazards (Ahn, et al., 2004). Most of the efforts made towards the discovery of new bioactive metabolites possessing antioxidant activity have focused for many years on the easily accessible terrestrial higher plants, animal and microorganisms (Roussis, et al., 2004). Marine natural products have attracted the attention of biologists and chemists the world over for the last five decades. Deep water marine habitats constitute a relatively untapped resource for the discovery of novel antioxidants from natural products. To date approximately 16,000 marine natural products have been isolated several of the compounds from marine source exhibiting biological activity. The ocean is considered to be a source of potential drugs.However, most natural antioxidants extracted from the terrestrial sources, i.e. carotenoids, phenolic compounds and vitamin E, have the important disadvantage of being water insoluble (Ahn, et al., 2004). Seaweeds, like all photosynthesizing plants, are exposed to strong oxidizing agents that can cause photodynamic damage to the photosynthetic apparatus (Sukenik, 1993). The absence of such damage in seaweeds, in spite of the proximity of the photosynthetically produced oxygen and suitable targets within the photosynthetic apparatus, suggest that these cells have protective antioxidative mechanisms and compounds (Niki, 1997). In addition, seaweeds are rich in vitamins, minerals, natural bioactive compounds, and various functional polysaccharides. Particularly, the polysaccharides, which are plentifully present in brown seaweeds, such as alginates, fucans, and laminarans, are water-soluble dietary fibers and possess various bioactive properties. These polysaccharides are considered to be digested by some types of carbohydrases derived from microorganisms. These kinds of enzymes can convert water-insoluble seaweeds into water-soluble materials. It is expected that different bioactive properties, including antioxidant activities arise from the resulting enzymatic extracts of seaweeds (Ahn, et al., 2004) This discovery, as well as the scientificadvancement in the last two decades in the areas of chromatography, spectroscopy and marine technology, has allowed obscure and rare organisms to became accessible (Roussis, et al., 2004), and seaweeds, along with their extracts, to become good candidatesas sources of natural water-soluble antioxidants (Ruperez, et al., 2002). The attempts that have been made to explore the structurally unique chemistry of seaweeds for new antioxidant prototypes, have revealed the powerful antioxidant activity of seaweeds(Legarreta, 2004). There has been a long tradition of consuming a wide range of seaweeds as sea vegetables, especially in the Far East and the Pacific (Mabeau, 1993), due to the recognized content of vitamins (A, B1, B2, and C), dietary fiber, and minerals (Nagai, 2003). Recent findings that seaweeds contain important antioxidant compounds have served to enhance its beneficial value as a human food (Yan, 1998), to the extent that it has the potential to be marketed worldwide (Nagai, 2003). For this reason the investigation presented in this book is of real importance for the pharmaceutic and cosmetic industry finding a new source of important antioxidants.
URI : http://repositorio.espe.edu.ec/handle/21000/11685
ISBN : 978-9978-301-49-4
Aparece en las colecciones: Ciencias de la Vida

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