Cephalotoxins: A Hotspot for Marine Bioprospecting?

Bioprospecting Marine Plankton

The ocean dominates the surface of our planet and plays a major role in regulating the biosphere. For example, the microscopic photosynthetic organisms living within provide 50% of the oxygen we breathe, and much of our food and mineral resources are extracted from the ocean. In a time of ecological crisis and major changes in our society, it is essential to turn our attention towards the sea t...

An Update on Marine Genetic Resources: Scientific Research, Commercial Uses and a Database on Marine Bioprospecting

Bioprospecting of marine invertebrates for new natural products - a chemical and zoogeographical perspective.

Bioprospecting for new marine natural products (NPs) has increased significantly over the last decades, leading to an unprecedented discovery of new molecules. Marine invertebrates have been the most important source of these NPs, with researchers commonly targeting particular taxonomic groups, marine regions and/or molecules from specific chemical groups. The present review focuses on new NPs ...

Bioprospecting for Podophyllotoxin*

Podophyllotoxin is a natural lignan that is currently being used as a precursor to semi-synthetic anticancer drugs etoposide, teniposide, and etopophos. These compounds have been used for the treatment of lung and testicular cancers as well as certain leukemias (Stahelin and Wartburg 1991; Imbert 1998). The patent for the use of etoposide in such therapies expired in 1995 and since then, etopos...

Bioprospecting: a CAM Frontier

With Volume 2 of eCAM, we begin to intensify the inclusion of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)-related natural products derived from plants and from animals (1). There will be an attempt to focus on products from animals, since we know that the literature tends to be ‘glutted’ with products derived from plants (1,2). In either case, both sources of natural products provide a veritab...