Natural Products from Semi–Mangrove Plants in China

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics-mainly between latitudes 25° N and 25° S [1]. Mangrove plants were comprised of true-mangrove plants and semi-mangrove plants. The true-mangrove plants were woody plants, which only grew in the intertidal zone and couldn’t survive in the land. Semi-mangroves were woody plants that could both grow in the intertidal zone and in the land. The differences between the two kinds of mangroves were the specificity of living habitats of the true-mangrove and the amphibiotic living habitats of the semi-mangrove as shown in Figure 1. Meanwhile, all of them were woody plants and could grow in the specific environment of intertidal zone, and the latter was the basis of the diversified chemical constituents and biological activities of the mangroves [2].