The marine environment is a rich but underexploited source of commercially interesting natural products with different applications. Several marine organisms, such as seaweeds, microalgae, sponges, cyanobacteria, ascidians, and fungi, are sources of natural valuable molecules. These chemical compounds range from small molecules and enzymes to highly complex secondary metabolites that show bioactivities in physiological systems. It is thus of great importance to collect information concerning the discovery of these molecules and their characterization and relation to human diseases.
Gathering data about novel technologies and sources to obtain and isolate such as precious molecules as well as new applications for them is extremely appreciated in the chemical field. It is very useful for chemists to obtain these molecules with high purity to be used as analytical standards to calibrate the chromatography equipment. Many of these compounds are not commercially available, so the isolation methods of these molecules from microalgae, seaweeds, and cyanobacteria is a challenging task. The availability of some marine molecules has been a long-term problem due to the difficulty of their synthesis. Because of the complexity of their structure, the total synthesis has been shown to be difficult. Developing protocols to obtain reference standards from natural sources has shown satisfactory results in the chemical industry.
Marine Molecules From Algae and Cyanobacteria addresses these topics, highlighting fundamentals of biomolecules, their roll in living organism, structure elucidation, sources, important characteristics, and the industrial applications of these biomaterials for educational (academic) as well as industrial purposes. This book covers all methodologies used in the search of marine natural products: screening of marine molecules by chemical methods like HPLC, LC-MS/MS, the isolation of high-value compounds with biotechnological potential, discovery of new molecules, and the optimization of green extraction procedures of these molecules, such as supercritical fluid extraction and pressurized solvent extraction, and other alternative chemical techniques applied in the exploration for marine compound.
Fuertes, Paz Otero: - Dr. Paz Otero received her Bachelor´s Degree in Food Science at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), Spain. After that, she carried out her PhD at the Pharmacology Department of the Veterinary Faculty at the same University, awarded with the distinction Cum Laude and the Special PhD Award. Dr. Paz Otero has held postdoctoral research positions in Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland (2014-2017) and The Institute of Food Science Research, CIAL (2017-2018) at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She has published extensively in the field of food chemistry, toxicology, analytical chemistry, pharmacology, nutrition and phycotoxin biology with more than 56 authored research articles, 70 contributions to international congress and 10 chapters books to date. Dr. Paz Otero also serves as invited reviewer for several research journals, editorial board member for online free-access journals and guest editor for special issues.
Verma, Dakeshwar Kumar: - Dakeshwar Kumar Verma is Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Government Digvijay Autonomous Postgraduate College, Rajnandgaon, India. His research is mainly focused on the preparation and design of organic compounds for various applications.
