Chemical profiles of less-volatile organic compounds from the Adriatic Sea macroalgae obtained by supercritical CO2 extraction

Abstract

Due to the lack of less-volatile compounds composition data of macroalgal supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) extracts, the main goal of this study was to investigate their chemical profiles. SC-CO2 extraction (40 °C and 300 bar) was performed on seven macroalgal species including five brown (Halopteris filicina, Fucus virsoides, Dictyopteris polypodioides, Gongolaria barbata and Ericaria amentacea), one green (Codium bursa) and one red (Amphiroa rigida), that were collected from the Adriatic Sea. After the analysis by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, the results revealed that fatty acids were the main components of the extracts. Hexadecanoic acid was found as dominant fatty acid in most of the species, while 3-hexyl-4,5-dithiacycloheptanone was dominant in D. polypodioides. Performed phytochemical study contributes to the knowledge of less-volatile composition of analyzed species indicating that the “species biodiversity“ factor was the most influent regardless of classification to brown, green or red macroalgae.