Comparative Evaluation of Fatty Acid Composition of Different Sargassum (Fucales, Phaeophyta) Species Harvested from Temperate and Tropical Waters

Abstract

Seaweeds are a delicacy across the Asian continent, especially in countries like Japan and Korea. Many of the seaweeds are presently underutilized, although they have potential for use in health foods. In the present study we evaluated three different species of brown algae of genus Sargassum (Fucales, Phaeophyta), collected from temperate and tropical waters, for their lipid class and fatty acid composition. Two species—Umitorano (Sargassum thunbergii) and Fushi sujimoku (S. confusum)—harvested from the Northwest Pacific Ocean off Usujiri, Hokkaido, Japan and one species (S. marginatum) harvested from the Arabian Sea (Indian Ocean) off Goa, west coast of India, formed the materials of the study. In all the seaweeds glycolipids formed the major lipid class followed by neutral lipids and phospholipids. Palmitic acid (C16:0) was found to be the predominant fatty acid among all the three species with Sargassum marginatum recording the highest quantity. However, the species of Sargassum harvested from the cold waters of NE Pacific Ocean were found to contain more of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs; > 50% of total fatty acids) as compared to the higher content of saturated fatty acids (about 53% of total fatty acids) in the seaweed harvested from the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean. However, the degree of unsaturation (DU) and mean chain length (MCL) of PUFAs were not significantly different (p ≥ 0.05) among the cold water species. A non-methylene interrupted (NMI) fatty acid, eluting just before 20:2 n-6, was found to be a characteristic feature of Sargassum and could well be used as a taxo-nomic marker for seaweeds of the genus Sargassum. The higher PUFA content in S. thunbergii and S. confusum make them potential sources in the preparation of PUFA-rich nutraceutical and/or functional-food formulations.