Recently, a great deal of interest has been developed to isolate novel bioactive compounds from marine
resources because of their numerous health beneficial effects. Among marine resources, marine algae are
valuable sources of structurally diverse bioactive compounds. The cell walls of marine algae are rich in
sulfated polysaccharides (SPs) such as fucoidans in brown algae, carrageenans in red algae and ulvans
in green algae. These SPs exhibit many beneficial biological activities such as anticoagulant, antiviral,
antioxidative, anticancer and immunomodulating activities. Therefore, marine algae derived SPs have
great potential for further development as products in nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical
areas. This contribution presents an overview of biological activities and potential health benefits of SPs
derived from marine algae.