Biomaterials from Aquatic and Terrestrial Organisms

Organisms, both aquatic and terrestrial, are sources of a wide variety of substances, many of which have already been shown to be bioactive. They play a wide variety of physiological and environmental roles. These chemicals include a broad array of proteins, lipids, and polysaccharides. Many of these natural products find applications in industry, agriculture, and medicine. The emphasis of study now is on testing and the development of new applications to solve medical and environmental problems, among others. This volume explores ongoing efforts to develop these natural products into commercially viable materials that will contribute to solving, especially, health and environmental problems world-wide. Among the chapters in this volume are ones that deal with the use of compounds from plants to treat Alzheimer's disease, the antimicrobial activity of terpenes from African plants, antioxidant compounds from plants, antiangiogenic compounds from marine invertebrates, bioactive natural products from marine fungi, and the anti-inflammatory and anti-allergenic properties of triterpenoids from plants.