Bioactive Substances of Animal Origin

Abstract

Animals are rich sources of bioactive compounds that exhibit a variety of biological functions on human health. These bioactive molecules can be either essential to the animals’ living or only produced integrally of more importance to other organisms. Over the past decades, an ever-growing number of natural compounds of animal origins have been extracted, identified, and applied as dietary or therapeutic supplements, which prevent, alleviate, or treat diverse diseases and associated symptoms. Some well-known examples are animal-derived polyunsaturated fatty acids and polysaccharides. Once consumed via animal food intake or supplementation, the ubiquitous chemical structures of these bioactives allow them to be either the substrates for important biomolecule synthesis or the modulators affecting the structure and function of organs and tissues. In addition to nutritional and medical potentials, some animal-derived bioactives have wide applications in the food, biotechnological, and agricultural fields. This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the ten types of animal-derived bioactive compounds, mainly focusing on their sources, chemistry, and biological functions.