Marine Health-Promoting Compounds: Recent Trends for Their Characterization and Human Applications

Abstract

Seaweeds represent a rich source of biologically active compounds with several applications, especially in the food, cosmetics, and medical fields. The beneficial effects of marine compounds on health have been increasingly explored, making them an excellent choice for the design of functional foods. When studying marine compounds, several aspects must be considered: extraction, identification and quantification methods, purification steps, and processes to increase their stability. Advanced green techniques have been used to extract these valuable compounds, and chromatographic methods have been developed to identify and quantify them. However, apart from the beneficial effects of seaweeds for human health, these natural sources of bioactive compounds can also accumulate undesirable toxic elements with potential health risks. Applying purification techniques of extracts from seaweeds may mitigate the amount of excessive toxic components, ensuring healthy and safer products for commercialization. Furthermore, limitations such as stability and bioavailability problems, chemical degradation reactions during storage, and sensitivity to oxidation and photo-oxidation, need to be overcome using, for example, nanoencapsulation techniques. Here we summarize recent advances in all steps of marine products identification and purification and highlight selected human applications, including food and feed applications, cosmetic, human health, and fertilizers, among others.

Seaweed-Derived Phlorotannins: A Review of Multiple Biological Roles and Action Mechanisms

“…However, due to the cost of enzymes, lack of substrate-specific enzymes, and limitations in maintaining bioreactor conditions, using an appropriate extraction method is required [127,128]. Several experiments have been carried out to identify the structural characteristics of purified phlorotannins, but the drawback is that there is no available library for comparison with the standard [129,130]. The spectrophotometer-based methods, such as the Folin-Ciocâlteu assay, FRAP assay, and ORAC assay, have a low specificity because non-phenolic substances are prone to overestimate the results [131,132].…”

A novel therapeutic effect of mannitol-rich extract from the brown seaweed Sargassum ilicifolium using in vitro and in vivo models

“…1 ). The chemical composition of S. ilicifolium CE indicated the mannitol as a major bioactive compound, which, according to literature, actively participates in the wound healing process in injured tissues by increasing the viability of collagen fibrils and preventing further cell damage [ 44 ]. Moreover, mannitol is able to modulate wound cell function by enhancing the proliferation and migration of fibroblast cells [ 45 , 46 ].…”

Pro-Apoptotic Activity of Bioactive Compounds from Seaweeds: Promising Sources for Developing Novel Anticancer Drugs

“…They act as antioxidants without interfering with the cytotoxic, pro-oxidant anticancer drugs [ 80 ]. Different studies have indicated that the antioxidant effect of carotenoids depends on their structure, location, or site of action [ 81 ]. The chemical structure of some carotenoids with pro-apoptotic activity is shown in Figure 4 , and their possible mechanism of action is in Figure 5 .…”

“…Fucoxanthin ( B ), a xanthophyll with an allenic bond and 5,6-monoepoxide, is one of the most abundant carotenoids, contributing to more than 10% of the estimated total carotenoid production in nature [ 82 , 83 ]. It has antioxidant, anticancer, antiobesity, and antidiabetic properties [ 81 ]. NF-κB is a protein complex that controls DNA transcription, and its activation generates cell survival, promoting cancer cell growth and inhibiting apoptosis [ 46 ].…”