The Mediterranean Sponge Dysidea avara as a 40 Year Inspiration of Marine Natural Product Chemists

Abstract

Marine sponges have been intensively studied by organic chemists, biologists and pharmacologists during last 60 years, due to great biodiversity of their secondary metabolites. A couple of very promising bioactivities of these compounds have been reported. Indeed, some of these metabolites are considered as the leads for the future drugs targeting tumours, viral and bacterial diseases, malaria and inflammations. Herein we briefly report key bioactivities of avarol, the main secondary metabolite of the marine sponge Dysidea avara (Schmidt, 1862).