Marine Molecules from Algae and Cyanobacteria

The marine environment is a rich but underexploited source of commercially interesting natural products with different applications. Several marine organisms, such as seaweeds, microalgae, sponges, cyanobacteria, ascidians, and fungi, are sources of natural valuable molecules. These chemical compounds range from small molecules and enzymes to highly complex secondary metabolites that show bioactivities in physiological systems. It is thus of great importance to collect information concerning the discovery of these molecules and their characterization and relation to human diseases.

Gathering data about novel technologies and sources to obtain and isolate such as precious molecules as well as new applications for them is extremely appreciated in the chemical field. It is very useful for chemists to obtain these molecules with high purity to be used as analytical standards to calibrate the chromatography equipment. Many of these compounds are not commercially available, so the isolation methods of these molecules from microalgae, seaweeds, and cyanobacteria is a challenging task. The availability of some marine molecules has been a long-term problem due to the difficulty of their synthesis. Because of the complexity of their structure, the total synthesis has been shown to be difficult. Developing protocols to obtain reference standards from natural sources has shown satisfactory results in the chemical industry.

Marine Molecules From Algae and Cyanobacteria addresses these topics, highlighting fundamentals of biomolecules, their roll in living organism, structure elucidation, sources, important characteristics, and the industrial applications of these biomaterials for educational (academic) as well as industrial purposes. This book covers all methodologies used in the search of marine natural products: screening of marine molecules by chemical methods like HPLC, LC-MS/MS, the isolation of high-value compounds with biotechnological potential, discovery of new molecules, and the optimization of green extraction procedures of these molecules, such as supercritical fluid extraction and pressurized solvent extraction, and other alternative chemical techniques applied in the exploration for marine compound.