ABSTRACT
The biological and chemical diversity of the marine environment has been the source of unique chemical compounds with the potential for industrial development as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, molecular probes, enzymes, ne chemicals, and agrichemicals (Ireland et al. 1993). The oceans represent a virtually untapped resource for the discovery of even more novel compounds with useful activity. Even though the commercial success stories in biotechnology are familiar, such stories in marine biotechnology are far less familiar and far fewer (Zilinskas et al. 1995). In the last decade, there has been a continuous effort to learn more about the still largely unexplored realm of marine-related products.
