Chemotaxonomy as a Potential Method to Rapidly Identify Various Namibian Plocamium Species

Differentiating between different Plocamium species of marine algae is not a trivial task. However, a literature review reveals that each species of Plocamium has a major and minor metabolite that is unique to a particular Plocamium species being investigated. Knowledge about the chemotaxonomy of these unique major and minor metabolite standards therefore enables the potentially rapid identification of Plocamium species by means of either H-1 NMR or GC-MS analysis of crude Plocamium extracts.