Brown algal polyphenol and its pharmaceutical properties

Abstract

The world’s oceans represent an enormous resource for the discovery of potential therapeutic agents. During the last decades, numerous novel compounds have been isolated from marine organisms and many of them have been applied for phamacological industry. Notably, marine algae are known to be one of the most important producers of variety of chemically active metabolites. Among them, 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 considered as promising agents for the development of pharmaceuticals. This contribution focuses on phlorotannins from brown algae and presents an overview of their biological activities and health benefit effects.