The formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is an inevitable consequence in aerobic organisms as a byproduct during metabolic respiration (Han et al. , 2007, Je et al., 2009). These highly reactive ROS can be considered strong oxidants and have been shown to induce damage in all cellular macromolecules, such as lipids, proteins, and DNA. Over the years, dietary polyphenols have been widely studied for their biological activities, particularly their antioxidant activity (Ahn et al., 2007, Heo et al., 2009, Kang et al., 2005, Li et al., 2009). . Polyphenolic compounds are natural compounds containing phenolic functionality and this large, diverse group of secondary metabolites exists in both terrestrial and aquatic environments (Shibata et al., 2002, Susanto et al., 2009). In addition to their strong antioxidant properties, these natural compounds polyphenols are known to have numerous biological activities such as anti-inflammatory (Ryu et al., 2008), antiallergic (Lee et al., 2009), antibacterial (Al-Mola, 2009 , Suffredini et al., 2004), anti-plasmin inhibitor (Fukuyama et al., 1990), matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor (Kim et al., 2006) and anticancer (Kong et al., 2009). The high antioxidant power of polyphenols is generally considered responsible for these activities. It is therefore very clear that it is possible to use these active compounds in many industrial applications as functional ingredients. Phlorotannins (brown algae polyphenols) are polyphenolic compounds found exclusively in brown algae. Phlorotannins, a subgroup of tannins, are produced entirely by polymerization of phloroglucinol units (Kang et al., 2007, Koivikko et al., 2005). Over the past two decades, the roles and functions of phlorotannins have been...... middle of paper...... available proteases and carbohydrases. Additionally, they reported that Alcalase and Viscozyme extracts were more effective than other extracts tested. With these significant results, it is clear that EAE offers a great advantage over the commonly used conventional extraction technique. Overall, enzymatic treatment prior to extraction resulted in improved yields in the case of algae bioactive components. In all cases mentioned above, hydrolytic enzymes have been used in different combinations as agents that interact on cell walls, breaking structural integrity, making intracellular materials more exposed to solvent extraction. As EAE has sparked increasing interest in the extraction of biologically active compounds, the technique could be explored as a means to improve the extraction of particular metabolites from algae..