Industry potential of marine bioactive components: Downstream processing and vehicles for efficient delivery in situ

The marine environment is a diverse source of compounds which, through the use of biotechnology, yield a great variety of new products for industrial development. To date, thousands of unique chemical compounds for use in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, molecular probes, enzymes, fine chemicals, and agrichemicals have been identified, each with potential multimillion-dollar market value (BioScience. 1996. Marine biotechnology. Special issue, 46). Due to this variety, the challenge that is faced by the marine biotechnology industry is to identify new sources of marine bioproducts, develop new screening techniques, and provide a sustainable source of supply (Pomponi, S.A., D.G. Baden, and Y. Zohar. 2007. Marine biotechnology: Realizing the potential. Marine Technology Society Journal 41(3): 24-31.). However, the biggest challenge lies in the broad spectrum of separation techniques that have to be applied for the downstream processing of marine compounds, inasmuch as it has been identified as the most ineffective and expensive part of the overall bioprocess. In general, each downstream process consists of the following steps. 1. Removal of insoluble particles 2. Isolation of the product 3. Purification 4. Polishing (Betler, P.A., E.L. Cussler, and W.-S. Hu. 1988. Bioseparations. New York: Wiley.)