This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).Abstract: Marine sponges belonging to the phylum Porifera (Metazoa), evolutionarily the oldest animals are the single best source of marine natural products. The present review presents a comprehensive overview of the source, taxonomy, country of origin or geographical position, chemical class, and biological activity of sponge-derived new natural products discovered between 2001 and 2010. The data has been analyzed with a view to gaining an outlook on the future trends and opportunities in the search for new compounds and their sources from marine sponges.
Keywords: marine sponges; porifera; marine natural products; anticancer; sponge-associated bacteria; drug; bioactive compound
