Towards Sustainable Medicinal Resources through Marine Soft Coral Aquaculture: Insights into the Chemical Diversity and the Biological Potential

Abstract

In recent decades, aquaculture techniques for soft corals have made remarkable progress in terms of conditions and productivity. Researchers have been able to obtain larger quantities of soft corals, thus larger quantities of biologically active metabolites, allowing them to study their biological activity in many pharmacological assays and even produce sufficient quantities for clinical trials. In this review, we summarize 201 secondary metabolites that have been identified from cultured soft corals in the era from 2002 to September 2022. Various types of diterpenes (eunicellins, cembranes, spatanes, norcembranes, briaranes, and aquarianes), as well as biscembranes, sterols, and quinones were discovered and subjected to bioactivity investigations in 53 different studies. We also introduce a more in-depth discussion of the potential biological effects (anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-microbial) and the mechanisms of action of the identified secondary metabolites. We hope this review will shed light on the untapped potential applications of aquaculture to produce valuable secondary metabolites to tackle current and emerging health conditions.

MS/MS Molecular Networking Unveils the Chemical Diversity of Biscembranoid Derivatives, Neutrophilic Inflammatory Mediators from the Cultured Soft Coral Sarcophyton trocheliophorum

“…In addition, the two most bioactive compounds, glaucumolide A ( 5 ) and glaucumolide B ( 6 ), were obtained with relatively high quantity, measured at 31.59 mg and 53.98 mg, respectively. The results suggested that aquaculture of soft coral could be a prolific and sustainable resource for the drug discovery and development [ 37 ].…”

Unlocking the Potential of Octocoral-Derived Secondary Metabolites against Neutrophilic Inflammatory Response

“…Both compounds were found to be effective in the inhibition of elastase release with IC 50 values of 18.8 and 6.9 µM. Lobovarol I (38), a new prenyleudesmane-type diterpene isolated from the same sample of the soft coral, inhibited the release of elastase with an IC 50 value of 20 µM. The other known eudesmane derivative (39) was found to be active with IC 50 values of 13.7 µM and 4.4 µM in superoxide anion generation and elastase release assays, respectively [91] (Figure 8).…”

“…Several chemical studies conducted on Rumphella antipathies led to the isolation of bioactive sesquiterpenes, including clovan-2,9-dione (1), antipacid B (2), and Aquaculture of soft corals has been conducted since the late 1950s for the purposes of commercialization and preservation. Many techniques, such as coral gardening, microfragmentation, larval enhancement, and direct transplantation, have been developed to meet the demand for the mass production of soft corals [38]. Ex situ and in situ are current approaches to coral cultivation.…”

Briavioids E–G, Newly Isolated Briarane-Diterpenoids from a Cultured Octocoral Briareum violaceum

“…Every year, thousands of newly isolated marine natural products are reported [ 1 , 2 ]. These metabolites provide a wide range of bioactivities, including anti-cancer, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory abilities [ 1 , 2 ]. These natural products are primarily isolated from marine microorganisms, algae and invertebrates.…”