Squid ink and its pharmacological activities

With the development of technical instruments the isolation and characterization of many natural products from marine and freshwater organisms, promotes a major advancement of discovery of these aquatic derived compounds. Due to the increasing demand of medicines from natural products, many researches on marine products are going on and is still a undiscovered journey. One such product is squid ink obtained from squid fish which is present in Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. It is mainly contained of melanin and many degradation studies have proven and still for the research work. The squid ink has spectacular activities in many ailments like uterine dysfunction, anticancer activity, antimicrobial activity, anti-inflammatory activity along with hypertensive effects. It has a very special place in homeopathic medicine and in traditional Chinese medicine due to its therapeutic uses.  Hence it is believed that the squid ink can be used as a better tool against these dysfunctions. The present review aims to assemble various pharmacological activities of squid ink although deeper insight in its pharmacological potential is required.