Seminar on Advances in Marine Natural Products

National Seminar on “Advances in Marine Natural Products and Nutraceutical Research”

The Society of Fisheries Technologists (India), Cochin and ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Cochin organized a National Seminar on “Advances in marine natural products and nutraceutical research” on 26^th February, 2016 at ICAR-CIFT, Cochin. The seminar witnessed nine invited lectures and 15 poster presentations. Around 100 delegates including researchers, industrialists, Govt. Officials and students participated in the seminar

In his key note address,  Padmashree Dr. V. Prakash, FRSC Distinguished Scientist of CSIR and former Director CSIR-CFTRI, Mysore spoke on “Dwindling ocean resources as a result of climate change affecting food, nutrition and health - Emergence of aquaceuticals”. He emphasized on the need of global scale effort to prevent fast depletion of ocean resources and gave example of Ocean Health Index (OHI) for ocean health monitoring. As per FAO report 29% of the present fish stock is being overfished. He also gave a brief account of food being wasted, which can be better managed for the production of nutraceuticals. He noted the complementarity of nutraceuticals to pharma industry and opined that the interface may lead to the popularization of “Nutrapharmaceuticals”. He also stressed on the need for synergy between the Scientists, Doctors, Pharmaco-epidemiologists group as well as the consumer group leading to Concerned Social responsibility (CSR) so that new products of aquaceuticals can reach the population for a healthy lifestyle.

Dr. Minnie Mathew,Retired Senior Advisor to the UN World Food programme spoke on “Nutraceuticals for persons living with HIV”. People who are HIV-positive need extra vitamins and minerals to help repair and heal damaged cells. The nutrition component was however missing in the overall care and treatment of HIV. In India, the United Nations (World Food Programme) was a pioneer in introducing nutraceuticals as part of care and treatment of HIV. Dr Minnie Mathew opined that aquaceuticals may be explored further in overall care and treatment of persons living with HIV. Dr. Benny Antony of M/s Arjuna Chemicals, Cochin spoke on “Production of marine nutraceuticals and their export potential”. Dr. Siddartha P. Sarma, IISc, Bangalore spoke on “Characterization of marine peptides”. Dr. Sarma elaborated on the structural characterization of novel peptides from marine cone shells and explained various mass spectrometric and NMR techniques for 3-Dimensional structure determination of peptides. These conotoxins can be used as pain killers and other therapeutic applications. Dr. S. Parameswaran, Scientist Incharge (Retd.), CSIR-NIO Regional Centre, Cochin spoke on “Marine nutraceuticals and bioactive compounds”. He discussed about many wonderful bioactive compounds isolated from marine flora and fauna like algae, tunicates, sponges, gastropods. To name a few the anticancer compounds, Renieramycins H and I were isolated from the blue sponge Haliclona cribricutis collected from Gujarat coast by his research group. He also stressed that better coordination among marine biologists, chemists, pharmacologists and industry is needed to develop new pharmaceutical molecules from marine lead molecules in India. Dr. Bimal P. Mohanty,  ICAR-CIFRI, Barrackpore spoke on “Marine and freshwater fishes as a storehouse of nutraceuticals”. Dr. P.T. Neeraj of Synthite Industries Ltd., Kolencherry spoke on “Marine natural products in Indian system of medicine”. He elaborated on how various marine origin products forms a part of traditional medicinal knowledge. Dr. A.A. Zynudheen, Principal Scientist, ICAR-CIFT, Cochin spoke on “Fishaceuticals - A detailed investigation”. He explained various nutraceutical products developed from fish. Dr. Suseela Mathew, Principal Scientist, ICAR-CIFT, Cochin spoke on “Biochemical characterization and bioactivity studies of natural products from marine sources”. She discussed various nutraceutical products developed at ICAR- CIFT and bioactivity characterization of such products.

Inaugural session in progress (L to R: Dr. Suseela             Dr. V. Prakash being felicitated by Dr. C.N. Ravishankar
Mathew, Dr. T.K. Srinivasa Gopal, Dr. V. Prakash                        

Dr. V. Prakash                                          Dr. Minnie Mathew                                  Dr. Bimal P. Mohanty

Dr. Benny Antony                                Dr. S. Paramerswaran                Dr. P.T. Neeraj

Dr. Sidhartha P. Sarma                                                     Dr. Suseela Mathew

Guests and audience attending the Seminar