Alternate: jQuery Find Text and Replace with Custom Text
HTML
<div>lorem ipsum dolor sit * amet.</div>
outside the scope * ignore ...
<span>lorem * ipsum * dolor sit amet not a div * ignore.</span>
<div>* lorem * ipsum dolor sit * amet</div>
JAVASCRIPT
$(document).ready(function() {
$('div:contains(*)').html(function() {
return this.innerHTML.replace(/\*/g, '<mark>*</mark>');
});
});