ABSTRACT
Algae belong to a group of organisms that have enormous ecological importance and represent a signi’cant proportion of the world’s biodiversity. Seaweeds have always been of great interest in Asian culture as marine food sources (Rioux et al., 2009). In contrast, seaweeds represent an important economical resource mostly in the Asia and Paci’c countries as well as in India, where they are not only largely harvested but also intensively and largely employed in human nutrition (Caliceti et al., 2002). They can be classi’ed as green algae (Chlorophyta), red algae (Rhodophyta), and brown algae (Phaeophyta) depending on their nutrient and chemical composition (Dawczynski et al., 2007). Total world seaweed production is estimated to be 8.5 million metric tons. In addition, the seaweed industry uses 7.5-8 million metric tons of wet seaweeds annually, either from the wild or from cultivated crop (Dhargalkar and Verlecar, 2009). Seaweeds or marine macroalgae are a potential renewable resource in the marine environment and are known to be an extremely rich source of bioactive compounds (Chandini et al., 2008). Therefore algae can be a very interesting
23.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................305 23.2 Skin and Cosmetics ..............................................................................................................306 23.3 Potential Compounds from Brown Algae as Cosmeceutical Ingredients ............................306
