Natural Products with Health Benefits from Marine Biological Resources

Ocean is the cradle of lives, which provides a diverse array of intriguing natural products that capture scientists’ great attention in the past few decades due to their significant and extremely potent biological activities. In addition to being rich sources for pharmaceutical drugs, marine natural products are increasingly recognized as sources in the discovery of functional foods and dietary supplements and provide useful probes to lead to breakthroughs in various scientific fields. With an emphasis on the bioactive and nutritional compounds discovered from the sea, four sections are covered in this paper: 1) historical review of breakthroughs on marine natural products; 2) metabolites from marine organisms with health benefits; 3) commercial applications related to marine organisms and their metabolites; 4) separation and isolation techniques used in marine natural products. Keywords: Health benefits, marine biological resources, natural products.