A Review on Investigational Studies of Marine Macroalgae Spongomorpha indica L

Abstract

Plants are being used for disease treatment, prevention, cure, and many other medicinal purposes long before the prehistoric era as traditional medicines. The use of natural products for the discovery of many novel drugs has been increasing over the globe. Along with terrestrial plants, marine plant species too have a role in drug discovery and serves as lead compounds. Marine plants showed potent action in tumor and cancer cells and further produced many novel compounds in natural products of chemistry. Thus, marine samples became attractive to pharmaceutical companies in order “re-discovery” of compounds from relatively well-characterized terrestrial sources and because of the realization that classes of molecular structures not found in terrestrial but found in the marine environment. The present review aims to provide a detailed note on new marine macroalgae of Chlorophyceae class, Spongomorpha indica L. that is also accepted as Acrosiphonia orientalis and its important aspects related to ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology. Identification of important elements such as K (802.5), I (215.5), etc., Compounds isolation (such as 2,5-Di-O-methyl-L-arabinose, arabinose, 2,4-Di-O-methyl-L-arabinose, etc.) for the assessment of usefulness of the marine macroalgae and important pharmacological activities like anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial activities. In overall, this review concludes the reports on phytochemical and pharmacological aspects of Spongomorpha indica L. and brief information on its genus Spongomorpha and species related to it. Marine algae are rich in vitamins, minerals, and secondary metabolites. Thus, provides the information on importance of studies on marine algae those have the medicinal, molecular, and other values that are not found in terrestrial but found in the marine environment only.