Pharmaceutical properties of marine polyphenols: an overview

The marine environment represents approximately half of the global biodiversity. It is a rich source of structurally diverse and biologically active metabolites, which are important for the discovery of potential therapeutic agents1, 2. During the last decades, marine organisms have received much attention in screening marine natural products for their biomedical and pharmaceutical potentials3-5. Various marine organisms such as algae, tunicates, sponges, soft ABSTRACT Natural products are non-drug materials that have applied for prevention or treatment of health problem. The use of natural products as pharmaceutical ingredients has got much attention by consumers nowadays. Among them, marine organisms are currently considered as a huge source for the discovery of pharmaceutical agents. During the last decades, numerous novel agents have been achieved from marine organisms and many of them have potential application in pharmaceutical industry. Notably, marine algae are known to be one of the most important producers of variety of chemically active metabolites. Especially, phlorotannins, a polyphenol from brown algae, have been revealed to possess numerous biological activities such as UV-protective, anti-oxidant, anti-viral, anti-allergic, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetes, and anti-obesity activities. Therefore, phlorotannins are promising agents for development of pharmaceutical products. This contribution focuses on phlorotannins from brown algae and presents potential application in pharmaceutical field due to its biological activities and health benefit effects.