Harvesting Drugs from the Seas and How Taiwan Could Contribute to This Effort

The ocean covers more than 70% of the planet surface and its complicated ecosystems offer vast biodiversities. The long term natural selection force faced by the rich fauna and flora favors those which could produce secondary metabolites that are used to fend off competition, predation and parasitism. The effort of acquiring natural compounds for disease treatment started in 1970s and great progresses have been made over the past three decades. Many marine natural compounds are isolated from cone snails, corals, sponges, sea squirts, marine worms, bryozoans, sea slug, and sharks. These drugs are used for treating fungal infection, tuberculosis, nematode infection, malarial infection, bacterial infection, viral infection, pain management, cancer and inflammation control. The natural compounds currently under clinical trails are very limited and the potential to discover more potent drugs from the seas could be expected. Taiwan situates in a very unique highly biodiversified location and has great biodiversity to offer many marine natural compounds for use in future development. However, the limited manpower in identifying possible useful compounds hinders its long term potentials and development. Concerted efforts from governmental agencies, research communities and private sectors need to be coordinated to make the best use of highly developed aquaculture technology in Taiwan to enhance in captivity mass production of raw materials needed for extraction of marine natural compounds which also could protect natural population and habitats from over exploitation.

並列關鍵字

marine natural products ； drugs ； marine toxins ； marine vertebrates ； marine invertebrates

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