Abstract

Chile is in the extreme southwestern part of America; and it has an extreme length, of approxi-mately 4300 km that increases to 8000 km considering the Chilean Antarctic Territory. Despite the large extent of its coastal territory, and the diversity of geographic environments and climates associated with Chilean coasts, the research of marine resources it has been rather scarce. From marine organisms found in Chilean coasts, algae have been the most studied, since they contain a wide range of interesting secondary metabolites that have some structural traits that make them unique and characteristic. Thus, a wide structural variety of natural products including terpe-noids (monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, diterpenes, and meroterpenoids), furanones, and C15-acetogenins has been isolated and identified. This review describes the literature of bio-prospecting and the exploration of the secondary metabolites from the Chilean coasts.