The Biotechnological and Seafood Potential of <i>Stichopus regalis</i>

Abstract

Sea cucumbers are highly used not only for the production of the bêche-de-mer, but also recent studies have been showing the high potential of these marine invertebrates on the pharmaceutical industry, as they are rich in bioactive compounds with important functions. Stichopus regalis extracts (1 mg•mL −1 ) were used in antioxidant, antimicrobial and antitumor assays. The lipid profile was also evaluated. No significant antioxidant activity was detected in both methanolic and dichloromethane extracts. The methanolic fraction showed the highest antimicrobial potential against Candida albicans with an IC 50 of 475.4 μg•mL −1 . In the antitumor assays, the dichloromethane fraction showed a high potential for both cell lines, as revealed by the MTT method. The total fat content was 3.63% ± 0.11% and the fatty acid profile revealed the highest amount in C16:0 (9.43% ± 0.77%), C18:0 (12.43% ± 0.83%), C18:1 ω7 (5.63% ± 0.33%), EPA (12.49% ± 0.15%), DHA (7.35% ± 0.02%), ARA (19.29% ± 0.14%) and a ω3/ω6 ratio of 1.078. These findings led us to suggest the potential use of S. regalis as a new source of bioactive compounds with pharmacological potential and its nutritional benefits for human health.

Amino Acid and Fatty Acid Compositions of Sea Cucumber Stichopus Vastus from Salemo Island Waters, Indonesia

“…Similarly in the previous study, palmitic acid was the major saturated fatty acid in Thelenota anax, H. fuscogilva, H. fuscopunctata, A. caerulea and B. argus (Wen et al, 2010), A. japonicus (FAO/WHO, 2003). In other species, stearic acid was the major saturated fatty acid in S. hermanni, T. ananas and A. mauritiana (Wen et al, 2010), H. tubulosa (Sicuro et al, 2012), S. regalis (Santos et al, 2015) as well as H. edulis and H. scabra (Kidd, 2007). Palmitic acid showed antioxidant and antiatherosclerosis activities, whereas myristic acid plays an essential role in the activation of cellular functions such as signal transduction and constitutive proteins (Omran, 2013).…”

“…japonicus, cis-5,8,11,14,17-Eicosapentanoic acid was the major polyunsaturated fatty acid (Gao, Xu, & Yang, 2011), whereas cis-11,14,17-Eicosatrienoic acid was the major polyunsaturated fatty acid in H. tubulosa, H. polii (Sicuro et al, 2012) and H. edulis (Kidd, 2007). Arachidonic acid plays an important role in human health, especially growth because it is the main precursor of eicosanoics (Santos et al, 2015).…”

“…It is believed that the fatty acids content varies among the sea cucumbers species (Ridzwan et al, 2014). In addition, fatty acids are essential for life due to their positive impact on human health as sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids are being pursued where marine organisms increasingly regarded as good alternative (Santos et al, 2015).…”

Biochemical composition and antioxidant potential of the edible Mediterranean sea cucumber <em>Holothuria tubulosa</em>

“…The tegument extracts of H. tubulosa from the Bizerta lagoon had the lowest IC 50 values compared to the others, suggesting that these extracts have a potential antioxidant power. In contrast, no significant antioxidant activity was detected in Stichopus regalis extracts (Santos et al, 2015). On the other hand, Althunibat et al, (2009) showed that the extracts of H. Tubulosa possessed the highest antioxidant activity among the extracts of the three sea cucumber species from Malaysia (2 vs. 10 mg/ml).…”

“…Its production has great economic value in coastal countries. Several marine organisms such as sea cucumbers are considered healthy seafood and have received an increase in interest by nutritionists and pharmacologists due to their health benefits (Santos et al, 2015;Bilgin and Tanrikulu, 2018). This marine organism contains high nutritional quality such as protein, fatty acids, especially ecosapentaeinoic acid (EPA; 20:5n-3), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3), vitamins (A, C, B1, B2, and B3), aminoacids and essential elements such as Calcium, Magnesium, and Zinc (Barzkar et al, 2017;Bilgin and Tanrikulu, 2018).…”