Harvesting 

 Che Shelves 

 of Neptune's 

 Pharmacy 



From Hawaii's rocky reefs to the 

 pink sands of the Caribbean, sci- 

 entists are turning to the sea to 

 stock the pharmacies of the 

 twenty-first century. 



As they explore the Earth's final 

 frontier, researchers are just be- 

 ginning to probe the ocean and 

 its biota for use in drugs, food ad- 

 ditives, cosmetics, agriculture and 

 other products. 



Perhaps the ocean's greatest 

 promise for the future, they believe, 

 lies not in its role as the world's 

 larder, but in its capacity to be- 

 come the world's next pharmacy. 



Our present pharmacy draws 

 on terrestrial plants and herbs that 

 have been dispensed for thou- 

 sands of years. 



Today's drugs are derived from 

 land-based organisms or synthetic 

 replicas. But the future for phar- 

 maceuticals lies in one word: 

 ocean. 



BY KATHY HART 



And researchers will have a 

 wealth of plants and animals to 

 test. Almost 80 percent of all the 

 Earth's organisms live in the sea. 



Ocean submersibles equipped 

 with robotics are making it possi- 

 ble for researchers to dive deeper 

 and linger longer in Neptune's do- 

 main. They are harvesting algae, 

 corals, marine worms, seaweeds, 

 sponges and countless other 

 plants and animals for testing. 



And coming from the watery 

 environment makes marine plants 

 and animals different— better able 

 to fight diseases and viruses. 



Already scientists have discov- 

 ered marine-derived drugs active 

 against viruses, cancer and 

 maybe even AIDS. 



Only a few marine drugs are on 

 the market now, but others are 

 under development and consider- 

 ation for approval by the Food 

 and Drug Administration, says 

 Richard Moore, director of the 



Natural Products Program at the 

 University of Hawaii. 



And Sea Grant scientists from 

 Hawaii to Puerto Rico are playing 

 a role in the development of 

 marine pharmaceuticals. 



n laboratories in Washington 

 and Delaware, Sea Grant re- 

 searchers took a byproduct of 

 seafood processing— discarded 

 crab, shrimp, crawfish and lobster 

 shells destined for the dump— 

 and turned them into materials fit 

 for sutures and contact lenses. 



Chitin (pronounced kite' in), the 

 glue mollusks use to build their 

 shells, possesses unique healing 

 powers. And when converted into 

 chitosan, a simple derivative that 

 is non-allergenic, non-toxic and 

 biodegradable, it becomes the 

 stuff medicines will be made of. 



Chitosan can be woven into 

 bandages and sutures that pro- 

 mote quicker healing of wounds 

 and burns with reduced scar 

 tissue. It is molded into contact 

 lenses that are used as dressings 

 for eye wounds and surgery scars. 



For transplant victims, chitosan- 

 made blood vessels could reduce 

 rejection of the transplanted 

 organs. For burn patients, a 

 chitosan film forms an artificial 

 skin that could speed recovery. 

 And for folks suffering from 

 athlete's foot, a chitosan ointment 

 could spell relief. 



All of these chitin products are 

 in advanced stages of develop- 

 ment and testing. And even more 

 are on the way. 



University of Washington scien- 

 tists are studying the use of chitin 

 to repair severed nerves. But 

 chitosan's biggest promise for the 

 future may lie in its ability to lower 

 cholesterol. 



Chitin carries a strong positive 

 charge, which means it acts as an 

 attractant. If ingested, it's possible 

 chitosan could act as an absorb- 

 ent carrier that removes choles- 

 terol from the body. 



