| abstract |
The sponges were collected from a variety of locations in the Florida Keys and separated based on morphology and color. The samples were identified as three species, two of which are well known: V. rigida (Esper, 1794) (order Verongida, family Aplysinidae) and S. aurea (Hyatt, 1875) (order Dictyoceratida, family Thorectidae), and a third S. cerebriformis (Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864), is less common and separated based on subtle differences of morphology and coloration, from the other two species. Several compounds were isolated and were evaluated in established animal models predictive of neurological related drug function, namely, the rodent FST and the chick anxiety-depression model. |