This review considers a plethora of multidisciplinary literature relating to seaweeds and their bioactive metabolites. Rather than providing another stocktake of the diverse metabolites and applications, we undertake a meta-analysis of the status and direction of research and development towards biological applications. Of significance is that for health and medical applications specifically, the dominant focus remains on the unique and abundant sulfated polysaccharides. However, there is a shift from the historical publications that emerged during the development of the hydrocolloid industry in the last century. Recent development focuses on the huge diversity of these metabolites across more species and at finer structural scale. This is concurrent with the frontier of research in glycobiology where sulfated polysaccharide macromolecules are shown to have specific and important biological activities related to key molecular traits. Phycologists, biochemists, chemical engineers and health and medical researchers will build the teams that can deliver production and consistency of these complex molecules.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Research Group:	Medical biochemistry and metabolomics
Research Field:	Medical biochemistry and metabolomics not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Other health
Objective Field:	Other health not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	Fitton, HJ (Dr Helen Fitton)
ID Code:	119216
Year Published:	2014
Web of Science® Times Cited:	12
Deposited By:	Health Sciences
Deposited On:	2017-07-27
Last Modified:	2017-07-27
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