sources of bioactive constituents, as most medicinal plants (~97%) have been totally investigated. So, many other natural sources were being taken into consideration, especially those located in marine habitats e.g. soft corals, sponges, jellyfishes, algae, and microorganisms. Microorganisms are living symbiotically or located in sediments and represent a huge source of diverse bioactive secondary metabolites. Such diversity increases the possibility of structural novelty as well as bioactivity.Penicillin (1), one of the first antibiotics from microorganisms, was discovered in 1928 by Fleming, showing a bactericidal activity against the Staphylococcus sp.For this great discovery, Fleming, Chian and Florey were honoured with the Nobel Prize in 1945 [7] . Since the discovery of penicillin (1) and mycophenolic acid (2) before [8] , microorganisms, especially bacteria, played an essential role in the production of antibiotics and other drugs for the treatment of current diseases [9, 10] .
7The systematic investigations of marine environment as sources of novel biologically active agents began intensively in the mid 1970s. Among the phyla in the oceans, bacteria, fungi, algae, sponges, coelenterates, sea hares, bryozoans, tunicates and nudibranchs have been studied [28,29] . There is, however, a continual increasing of the reported new compounds from marine sources since 1965 (Figure 1). Sponges followed by coelenterates were the most studied marine organisms. Since that time,
13Didemnin B (13), a depsipeptide, was isolated from the Caribbean tunicateTrididemnum solidum [34] , inhibiting the synthesis of RNA, DNA and proteins in various cancer cell lines. It shows anti-viral and immunosuppressive activities as well as being an effective agent in treatment of leukaemia and melanoma. However, due to its toxicity, it was withdrawn from phase II clinical trials [35,36] .Thiocoraline ( 14), a novel depsipeptide was isolated (1997) from the mycelial extract of the bacterium Micromonospora marina, associated with a marine soft coral in the Indian Ocean. Thiocoraline (14) showed potent cytotoxic activity at a nanomolar concentration against several tumor cell lines. It inhibits DNA polymerase [37,38] . It is currently in preclinical phase by PharmaMar.