Korean seaweeds as a food of future: an update on use and risk factors

Abstract

Seaweeds are significant sources of biological importance with an ability to produce a wide variety of marine-based compounds having various biological properties. Recently, there is an urgent need on consistent use of marine-based seaweeds as a source of food and bioactive compounds. This review discusses the risk of hazards due to heavy metals and iodine contents, beneficial effects for human, children and pregnant women's consumption. High iodine content is also a burning problem of seaweed consumption in daily food, therefore here we discussed various view for using seaweed in our daily food. Although plethora of research in aspects of drug development has been done on seaweeds which possess molecules of potent pharmaceutical significance, there is a lot to do with aspects of developing seaweeds as functional food supplements. In this way, it is possible to promote sustainable awareness for seaweed based drug development to assert the economic development of marine industries.