ABSTRACT
Marine ecosystems are a prolic source of structurally unique metabolites that have encouraged natural product chemists over several decades to explore and recognize novel chemical entities possessing potential pharmacological activities (Molinski et al. 2009; Mayer et al. 2010). Several bioactive marine metabolites have already been developed into pharmaceuticals for treatment of serious human ailments ranging from pain and microbial infections to immune diseases and cancer (Ebada and Proksch 2011). In addition, numerous new compounds with potential application as drugs or drug leads have been reported from marine invertebrates such as sponges, ascidians, and soft corals. In the past, the development of such promising substances was often hindered by scale-up problems regarding the sustainable production of these substances in sufcient quantities required for clinical trials and future market needs. Alternative production strategies overcame these problems only in some cases (Duckworth et al. 2004). Therefore, only a few marine natural products have so far entered preclinical or clinical trials compared to the huge number of compounds reported from marine organisms that feature promising pharmacological activities (Mayer et al. 2010; Ebada and Proksch 2011).
