A branch of pharmacology worried with pharmacologically dynamic substances display in sea-going plants and creatures; its goal is to discover and grow new helpful agents, Over 70% of the world's surface is secured by seas which contain 95% of the world's biosphere. Research typically focuses on sessile organisms or slow moving animals because of their inherent need for chemical defenses. Standard research involves an extraction of the organism in a suitable solvent followed by either an assay of this crude extract for a particular disease target or a rationally guided isolation of new chemical compounds using standard chromatography techniques. The traditional Western pharmacognosy focused on the investigation and identification of medically important plants and animals in the terrestrial environment, although many marine organisms were used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, some chemists turned to more pioneering work looking for new medicines in the marine environment. In the United States, the road has been long for the first FDA approval of a drug directly from the sea, but in 2004, the approval of ziconotide isolated from a marine cone snail has paved the way for other marine-derived compounds moving through clinical trials.
Related Journals: Journal of Marine and Terrestrial Natural Products, Chinese Journal of Marine Drugs, Marine Drugs
