Isolation and Characterization of Small Molecular weight Pharmacophores from Marine Gastropods as Defense Metabolites against Oxidative Stress Induced Diseases

Abstract

The ocean is considered to be a reservoir of biologically active chemical entities which has great potential for the development of drug molecules. Marine non-chordates are known to be the sources of a diverse array of secondary metabolites with wide ranging biological activities. Molluscs are an important group of non-chordates representing about 23% of all the marine organisms in the hydrosphere. Gastropoda being the major representatives of malacological community amount to about 80% of all described molluscs, and has been the prime source of bioactive compounds having pharmaceutical applications. Among the various gastropod species, Chicoreus ramosus, mainly known as ramose murex or branched murex, is a Muricid, found in the Indo-Pacific region , along the southeast coast of India, Andaman and Nicobar sea; along the coast of Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay. The whelk Babylonia spirata is a commercially important edible gastropod belonging to the family Buccinidae and form 55.8% of the total gastropod landings at the coastal regions of south west peninsular India. This study envisaged a systematic approach to isolate and characterize antioxidative bioactive leads from the gastropod species Chicoreus ramosus and Babylonia spirata and the methodology involved chemical profiling in conjugation with the evaluation of biological activity by selected assays with reference to inflammation and diabetics. The detailed nutritional profiling demonstrated the low-value species C. ramosus as well as the commercial gastropod B. spirata as rich storehouse of key nutritional elements required by the human nutrition and metabolic pool. These specie were found to be the valuable source of numerous critical micro and macro minerals and vitamins, which are fundamental for the metabolic functioning of the body.The antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic capacities of two edible marine gastropods C. ramosus and B. spirata were studied using a range of chemical reaction based bioassays. This study unveile