Antimicrobial Drugs Obtained from Marine Algae

In recent years, the antimicrobial resistance to various synthetic or chemically formed antimicrobial agents in medicines and food products has been observed. The high preference of consumers for purchasing food products free from chemical preservatives has led to more exploration into using antimicrobial agents from natural sources like plants, fungi, algae, and bacteria. The marine ecosystem comprises microorganisms, plants, vertebrates, and invertebrates that are rich sources of diverse antimicrobial products and can be a significant potential for developing novel type therapeutic agents, as the major portion of the sea has still not yet been examined for the evaluation of natural molecules for their antimicrobial activity. Such marine ecological niches promise a great source of antibacterial agents against many drugresistant strains of pathogenic microorganisms. Among the marine source, marine algae are a diverse group of organisms that includes brown, red, and green algae that have been targeted over the last few years for the secondary metabolites and a broad range of natural molecules for a broad spectrum of bioactivities beneficial to humans. Such bioactive compounds and secondary products possess a broad range of biological activities of antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. The class of compounds derived from marine algae, such as polysaccharides, fatty acids, phenolic compounds, pigments, lectins, alkaloids, terpenoids, and halogenated compounds, would be a new emerging area for unconventional drugs. Such classes of compounds will share a potent ability to control new diseases or tackling against multi-resistant strains of pathogens.

Keywords: Alkaloids, Antimicrobial activity, Antimicrobial resistance, Bioactive compounds, Fatty acids, Halogenated compounds, Marine algae, Phenolic compounds, Pigments, Polysaccharides, Terpenoids.