Extractives from marine organisms.

• Main Author: Cele, Cyril M.
• Other Authors: Gerber, J. P.
• Language: en
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Marine organisms > Composition.; Marine organisms > Indian Ocean.; Organic compounds > Synthesis.; Biopharmaceutics.; Theses > Chemistry.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10413/4336

The study involves the investigation of the chemical composition of some marine organisms. This entails collecting the organism, extracting compounds from it and separation, characterization and identification of these compounds. Marine chemistry has been ignored by many scientists in the past and it is for this reason that these organisms have been investigated, with the aim of discovering their chemistry and also finding new compounds which might be of value in our society. Such value may be the medicinal benefit and/or the understanding of some toxicological effect of some species. This study was conducted on Codium extricatum, Palythoa natalensis, Zoanthus sansibaricus and Zoanthus durbanensis all of which were collected from reefs situated at the southern part of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Carpobrotus edulis was another organism that was used in this work. The plant normally occurs on sand dunes. This, however, was collected from the terrestrial environment within the premises of University of Natal (Durban). Sterols, i.e., compound l, 2 and compound 4 were obtained from both the Codium and Zoanthus genera. Zoanthus also gave compounds which are derivatives of genetic material and these include inosine nucleoside, adenine nucleoside and guanine nucleoside. Zoanthus further gave a compound which is aromatic in nature i.e., compound 5 and this belongs to a class of compounds known as the tyramines. Cinnamic acid was found from Carpobrotus edulis. The structures of all compounds were elucidated by conducting a number of experiments using spectroscopic methods. These included nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (n.m.r), mass and infrared spectroscopy. === Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.