Biological Activities of the Marine Sponge Axinella

Marine natural products have attracted the attention of biologists and chemists on the world over for the last five decades. The ocean is considered to be a source of potential drugs. Covering around 70% of the planet surface, the oceans possess a huge potential for the new discovery1. The marine environment exhibits an important biodiversity represented by 34 of the 36 phyla of all globe, with ca. of 300000 known species of plants and animals, such as sponges, tunicates, bryozoans, shellfish, bacteria, fish, seaweeds, just to name a few2. Large number of compounds with unusual chemical diversity and remarkable biological activity have been isolated from marine organisms up to date. Sponges are the most primitive multicellular, filter feeding, and sesile animals without organised tissue or organ systems. They are a part of the benthic fauna and live in all areas of the marine world, from the shallow coastal seas to the deepest oceans3. Since sponges have a wide range of biosynthetic capabilities, they are the dominant source of these compounds4. The sponge class Demospongiae is known to produce the largest number and diversity of secondary metabolites isolated from marine invertebrates5. Although the functions of these secondary metabolites are largely unknown, there is some evidence that they provide chemical defenses against predators5-7.