Although marine living organism contains a numerious number of compounds, it is difficult to collect these compounds in a large scale for medicinal application. However, in recent years, several bioactive compounds isolated from marine macroalgae have been proved to be able to provide potential sources for development of medicinal products because they can be obtained in large amount from marine. A number of studies have reported a variety of effects of marine macroalgae but a few anti-inflammatory activity of marine macroalgae have recently been published. Herein, we reviewed novel anti-inflammatory compounds recently isolated from marine brown algae, green algae and red algae. From this survey, in particular, some compounds contained in edible macroalgae exert anti-inflammatory effects with inhibition on cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) activity regulated by nuclear factor-kappa B transcription factor that play a key role in cancer as well as inflammation, demonstrating to be able to potentially apply to development of anti-inflammatory agent for chemoprevention of cancer. Furthermore, some macroalgae and their compounds with both excellent anti-inflammatory activity and very low toxicity can select a potential candidates capable of preventing or treating several chronic inflammation such as colitis, hepatitis and gastritis, leading to cancer.