Potential anti-inflammatory natural products from marine algae

Inflammatory diseases have become one of the leading causes of health issue throughout the world, having a considerable influence on healthcare costs. With the emerging developments in natural product, synthetic and combinatorial chemistry, a notable success has been achieved in discovering natural products and their synthetic structural analogs with anti-inflammatory activity. However, many of these therapeutics have indicated detrimental side effects upon prolonged usage. Marine algae have been identified as an underexplored reservoir of unique anti-inflammatory compounds. These include polyphenols, sulfated polysaccharides, terpenes, fatty acids, proteins and several other bioactives. Consumption of these marine algae could provide defense against the pathophysiology of many chronic inflammatory diseases. With further investigation, algal anti-inflammatory phytochemicals have the potential to be used as therapeutics or in the synthesis of structural analogs with profound anti-inflammatory activity with reduced side effects. The current review summarizes the latest knowledge about the potential anti-inflammatory compounds discovered from marine algae.