Novel and highly potent antitumour natural products from cnidarians of marine origin

Abstract

This article covers the 2003–2012 literature published for marine natural products from the phylum Cnidaria. The focus is on new and highly potent antitumour substances, together with details related to the organism sourced. It describes 12 promising bioactives isolated from 7 species.

Keywords::

• invertebrata
• cancer
• secondary metabolites
• new leads

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (grant nos 172053 and III 41005). B.P. gratefully acknowledges two fellowships of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, two fellowships of the European Commission (the projects Basileus and HPC-Europa2, respectively) and two fellowships of the United Nations which provided him the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills in the field of natural product chemistry. The same author is also thankful to the Science Popularisation Society Novi Sad (chaired by Prof. Ruza Halasi, Ph.D. in Chemistry) for its particularly kind help and support.