ABSTRACT
The marine environment provides a cornucopia of natural products from marine organisms. The ubiquitous presence of isoprenoids in the marine environment and from marine organisms have encouraged the interest in many fields of these biotechnologically important and industrial compounds. In this chapter, the main properties of isoprenoids, carotenoids and provitamin A carotenoids from marine resources are presented and updated in basic and applied developments. Carotenoids have very important functions in human health. Because of their potent antioxidant properties and provitamin A, carotenoids are considered as important molecules of vital importance in protecting against chronic degenerative diseases, such as aging, cancer, cataract, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases. Because humans and animals are unable to synthesize carotenoids, their diet is vital for important functions, such as visual pigments, antioxidants, or colorants. Provitamin A carotenoids are beta-carotene, alfa-carotene, gamma-carotene, and beta-cryptoxanthin that can each be converted to retinol (vitamin A). Non-provitamin A carotenoids, viz, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin and astaxanthin cannot be converted to retinal or retinol because they lack the nonsubstituted β-ionone ring structure. In the last decade, significant progress in the production of carotenoids due to their powerful antioxidant, vitamin A, anti-inflammatory and cell signaling activities have been developed to meet the exceptionally high demands of dietary supplements, food coloring, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and animal feed.
