Tropical coastal marine ecosystems including mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reef communities are undergoing intense degradation in response to natural and human disturbances, therefore, understanding the causes and mechanisms present challenges for scientist and managers. In order to protect our marine resources, determining the effects of nutrient loads on these coastal systems has become ...

(2015) Are multifunctional marine polysaccharides a myth or reality? Front. Chem. 3:39. Marine algae are ancient photosynthetic organisms that constitute the largest group in the plant kingdom. They are used for functional food, cosmetic additives, supplements productions, and in traditional medicine due to taste, prophylactic, and therapeutic effects. Algae contain microelements and iodine-con...

Multicellular marine plants were collected from their natural habitats and the quantum efficiency of their photosynthesis was determined in the laboratory in five narrow wave length bands in the visible spectrum. The results along with estimates of the relative absorption by the various plastid pigments show a fairly uniform efficiency of 0.08 molecules O(2) per absorbed quantum for (a) chlorop...

In Mediterranean subtidal rocky reefs, Cystoseira spp. (Phaeophyceae) form dense canopies up to 1 m high. Such habitats, called 'Cystoseira forests', are regressing across the entire Mediterranean Sea due to multiple anthropogenic stressors, as are other large brown algae forests worldwide. Cystoseira forests are being replaced by structurally less complex habitats, but little information is av...

Marine algae are significant ingredients to formulate drugs for treating disease as they possess various bioactive potentials. Different marine algae (Laurencia papillosa and cylindrica (red algae) were collected from Red Sea (Faied and Ein Al-SokhnaSuez). Ulva fasciata (green algae) was collected from the Mediterranean Sea (Abu-Qir near Alexandria) and Dilophus fasciola (brown algae) was colle...

In this study, we elucidated the inhibitory effect of fucoidan from marine brown algae on the lipid accumulation in differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes and its mechanism. The treatment of fucoidan in a dose-dependent manner was examined on lipid inhibition in 3T3-L1 cells by using Oil Red O staining. Fucoidan showed high lipid inhibition activity at 200 μg/mL concentration (P < 0.001). Lipolytic a...

The combined and interactive effects of climatic and ecological factors are rarely considered in marine communities. We designed a factorial field experiment to analyze (1) the interactive effects of ambient UV radiation and consumers; and (2) the effects of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR 400 to 700 nm), UVA (320 to 400 nm) and UVB (280 to 320 nm) radiation on a marine hard-bottom com...

The present study was aimed to optimize the protocol for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles using aqueous extracts of Sargassum swartzii (Turner) C.Agardh and evaluate cytotoxic potetnials using brine shrimp bio-assay activity and Trypan blue dye exclusion method. The reduction of pure Ag+ ions was monitored by measuring the UV-Vis spectrum of the solution at 200-900 nm using Shimadzu spectr...

S eaweeds or marine algae have long made up a key part of the Asian diet and are also consumed in other parts of the world, such as in Ireland and Wales. Seaweed has often been used as a food for people who are sick and has been credited with health-giving properties.1 Today, seaweed supplements for human use are usually considered to be sources of iodine or minerals but may offer other therape...