A REVIEW OF PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OF MARINE ALGAE IN INDIAN COAST

Indian coastline stretches about 5700 km covering 9 states on the mainland and about 7500 km including islands and union territories. Seaweeds, a renewable natural resource, found growing in large quantities along the Indian coast. Seaweeds are currently worldwide interest in finding new and safe promising organisms for health. It is one of the important essential producers of biomass in the marine environment. Seaweeds are not only of high ecological but also of great economic importance as they produce a wide variety of chemically active metabolites in their surroundings. The potential uses of algal biomass for the benefit of mankind have been intensively reviewed in the last few years. Marine algae have been used as a novel food with potential nutritional benefits in industry and medicine for various purposes. Furthermore, marine algae have shown to provide a rich source of natural bioactive compounds with antidiabetic, hepatoprotective, antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-hypercholesterolemia and hypolipidemic and antineoplastic properties, etc. The present review is focusing on the bioactivities and potential pharmacological activity of marine algae which are found on the Indian coast.