Ankit Kumar^1,2, Rekha Jethi³, Ravindra Semwal¹, Ganesh Kumar² and Deepak Kumar Semwal^4
1Research and Development Centre, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Uttarakhand Ayurved University, Dehradun, India
²College of Pharmacy, Shivalik campus, Dehradun, India
³Patanjali Research Institute, Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India
⁴Department of Phytochemistry, Faculty of Biomedical Science, Uttarakhand Ayurved University, Dehradun, India

Part of the book: The Essential Guide to Alkaloids

Abstract

The dependency of humankind on nature for food and medicine, since time immemorial, has continued so far. Plants, animals, micro-organisms and marine organisms are excellent sources of bioactive molecules like alkaloids, glycosides, steroids, tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids and saponins etc. Due to the efficacy and potency of the naturally derived molecules, at present, no alternative is available for natural molecules, such as morphine, digitoxin, quinine, penicillin and cephalosporin. Due to the development of resistance against current medication in the case of micro-organism infection, parasite infection and cancer, the need for a new compensatory generation of therapeutic agents is today’s demand. Other than plants, animals and microorganisms, marine life has been introduced as an alternative source of medicinal agents in the last 50 years. At present, more than 200,000 marine species, as representative of each Phylum, are found in the ocean. About 30,000 bioactive compounds have been discovered in marine organisms. More than 8,500 species of sponges, are scientifically documented and identified but Researchers believed more than 25,000 species exist in the ocean. As a source of medicine, about 5,300 bioactive compounds are reported in marine sponges from diverse chemical classes, like alkaloids, peptides, and terpenoids. This book chapter discussed biological source, synthesis and pharmacological studies of a bromopyrrole alkaloid “Stevensine” isolated from different species of marine sponge. It was also synthesized from the related marine alkaloid hymenin. Stevensine has been shown several pharmacological potentials in different in-vitro and in-vivo studies, such as protein kinase inhibitor, neurological, anti-microbial, anti-tubercular, anti-cancer and anti-parasite activity. The previously available report concludes that further studies are needed to explore the mechanism of action of stevensine in cancer, diabetes and neurological disorders.

Keywords: alkaloids, marine compounds, sponges, protein kinase inhibitory

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