Marine Nutraceuticals

Nutraceuticals are described as products extracted, purified or produced from a plant, animal or marine source (e.g. antioxidants from blueberries, elk velvet, fish oils), or produced from dried, powdered, or pressed plant material and demonstrated to have a physiological benefit, or to provide protection against chronic disease. Recent trends in functional foods and supplements have demonstrated that bioactive molecules play a major therapeutic role in human disease. Nutritionists and biomedical and food scientists are working together to discover new bioactive molecules that have increased potency and therapeutic benefits. Marine life constitutes almost 80% of the world biota with thousands of bioactive compounds and secondary metabolites derived from marine invertebrates such as tunicates, sponges, molluscs, bryozoans, sea slugs and many other marine organisms. Nutraceutical products have a highly competitive market and price compared with conventional therapies; in particular their market share is increasing in many regions including the United States of America (USA), Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Latin America.

Marine Nutraceuticals: Prospects and Perspectives covers the state of the art information on marine nutraceuticals substances and examines the current status and future potential of natural marine compounds. It discusses the sources, isolation and purification, chemistry, functional interactions, applications, and industrial perspectives of marine-derived nutraceuticals.

The book summaries the widely available marine-based nutraceuticals and recent research carried out for the purposes of isolation, identification and characterization of marine-derived bioactive compounds with various therapeutic potentials. Marine nutraceuticals products represent a large portion of the global market and are derived from a diverse range of sources that provide a myriad of bioactive molecules. Marine sources have received great attention recently; research on marine-derived molecules has discovered new bioactive compounds with important properties increasing their applicability as nutraceuticals in the food and supplement industries.

This book provides state-of-the-art tool for all readers interested in this growing field—a valuable source for new compounds with promising uses in the nutraceutical, medicinal, and functional food industries.