Chemotaxonomy as a potential method to rapidly identify various Namibian Plocamium species

Abstract

Differentiating between different Plocamium species of marine algae is not a trivial task. However, a literature review reveals that each species of Plocamium has a major and minor metabolite that is unique to a particular Plocamium species being investigated. Knowledge about the chemotaxonomy of these unique major and minor metabolite standards therefore enables the potentially rapid identification of Plocamium species by means of either 1H NMR or GC-MS analysis of crude Plocamium extracts.