Potential pharmacological applications of polyphenolic derivatives from marine brown algae

Recently, the isolation and characterization of the biologically active components from sea-weeds have gained much attention from various research groups across the world. The marine algae have been studied for biologically active components and phlorotannins are one among them. Among marine algae, brown algal species such as Ecklonia calm, Eisenia arborea, Ecklonia stolinifera and Eisenia bicyclis have been studied for their potential biological activities. Majority of the investigations on phlorotannins derived from brown algae have exhibited their potentiality as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antitumor, antihypertensive, anti-allergic, hyaluronidase enzyme inhibition and in matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) inhibition activity. In this review, we have made an attempt to discuss the potential biological activities of phlorotannins from marine brown algae and their possible candidature in the pharmaceutical applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.