A look around the West Indies: The spices of life are secondary metabolites

Natural products possess a wide range of bioactivities with potential for therapeutic usage. While the distribution of these molecules can vary greatly there is some correlation that exists between the biodiversity of an environment and the uniqueness and concentration of natural products found in that region or area. The Caribbean and pan-Caribbean area is home to thousands of species of endemic fauna and flora providing huge potential for natural product discovery and by way, potential leads for drug development. This can especially be said for marine natural products as many of are rapidly diluted through diffusion once released and therefore are highly potent to achieve long reaching effects. This review seeks to highlight a small selection of marine natural products from the Caribbean region which possess antiproliferative, anti-inflammatory and antipathogenic properties while highlighting any synthetic efforts towards bioactive analogs.