ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the biology and pharmaceutical aspects of marine sponges. The genera discussed in the chapter includes agelas clathrodes, agelas linnaei, agelas mauritiana, agelas nakamurai, agelas oroides and auletta elongate. It also provides the compounds and the activites for demosponges. They are: cytotoxic activity; antimicrobial and antileishmanial activities; antibacterial activity; antimycobacterial and protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibiting activities; antioxidant activity; antimalarial, antimycobacterial, and antibacterial activities; antifungal activity; and antitumor activity. Several compounds, namely, (-)-agelasidine A, zooanemonin, 1-carboxymethylnicotinic acid, hymenidin, mukanadins A and C, monobromodispacamide, agelasidines A, 2-amide-4-bromopyrrole, and O-methyltryptophan have been isolated from agelas clathrodes. Among them, agelasidine A has shown both antibacterial and antifungal activities. The chapter lists minimum inhibitory concentration values recorded for agelasidine A. The alpha-galactosylceramide, natural killer isolated from extracts of agelas mauritiana, showed antidiabetic activity. Further, this compound exhibits profound antitumor activities.
