Novel marine bioactives: application in functional foods, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals
Fereidoon Shahidi, Sarusha Santhiravel
Abstract
Functional food, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical applications of natural products have gained growing attention as there is increasingly awareness of the association between bioactive compounds and improved health. Recently, food and biomedical scientists have focused more on marine resources to isolate bioactives since the marine ecosystem comprises unexploited resources with a wide range of organisms. Marine species produce a wide range of natural products, such as polysaccharides, peptides, polyunsaturated lipids, phenolic compounds, and pigments, with unique structures and diverse biological activities due to their extreme living environments. These active molecules reduce the risk of chronic disease and improve health by exhibiting antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, anti-obesity, antihypertensive, cardioprotective, and neuroprotective activities. This review summarizes the recent discoveries of bioactive compounds from marine invertebrates (sponges, cnidarians, echinoderms, molluscs, ascidians, and crustaceans), fishes, seaweeds, and marine microorganisms and their potential for functional foods, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals applications.