A REVIEW ON BIOACTIVE SECONDARY METABOLITES OF SEAGRASS OF THE SOUTHERN RED SEA, ERITREA

Seas and oceans represent a big store of numerous marine organisms and offer an enormous source of many novel compounds. With the increasing trend in antimicrobial resistance, nowadays the uses of marine organisms for the production of pharmaceuticals are becoming interesting. In comparison to terrestrial, marine organisms possess very exigent, competitive and aggressive surrounding, which is very different in many aspects from the terrestrial environment. Such a situation demands them to produce quite specific and potent active molecules. Marine angiosperms especially seagrass are one of the shelters for a wide array of secondary metabolites like saponins, phlobatannins, phenols, amino acids, protein, tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, Cardiac glycosides, phlobatannins, steroids, and phenols. Naturally, these seagrass are also used to produce compounds for a defense mechanism, which are found to be antioxidative in nature. The present review is thus focusing to present the pharmacological activities of eight marine seagrass species found in the Eritrean Red Sea for their antimicrobial and antioxidant properties.