AN UPDATE OF TERPENOIDS, STEROIDS AND BIODIVERSITY OF SEAWEEDS FROM THE COAST OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

This review article presents the comprehensive update of the ecology, biodiversity and importance of seaweeds. In addition, the article also presents the terpenoidal and steroidal compounds isolated from seaweeds of the coastline of Pakistan during the period of 1980 to 2008. Rapid growth in this field during the last thirty years resulted in the identification of a surprisingly large number of new structures of terpenoids and steroids. Overall, thirty one terpenoids and eighteen steroids have been reported from the seaweeds of the coast of Pakistan. The main sources of these compounds are brown, red and green algae. In addition, the study of the literature showed that only few terpenoids and steroids have been investigated for bioassay screening which exhibited some kind of activities to a little extent.