Abstract
The exploitation of marine organisms for human nutritional and pharmaceutical purposes has revealed important chemical prototypes for the discovery of new drugs, stimulating compounds isolation and syntheses of new related compounds with biomedical application. Nowadays, it is well known that inflammatory processes are involved in many diseases and the interest in the search for marine natural products with anti-inflammatory potential has been increasing. The genus Aplysia belongs to the class Gastropoda, having a wide geographical distribution and including several species, commonly known as sea hares. Aplysia depilans Gmelin is usually found in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean, from West Africa to the French coast. In these marine organisms, most of the digestion and nutrient absorption occurs in the digestive gland. This work aimed to explore the chemical composition and bioactivity of the methanol extract from A. depilans digestive gland. Therefore, fatty acids and carotenoids were determined by GC-MS and HPLC-DAD, respectively. Twenty-two fatty acids and eight carotenoids were identified for the first time in this species. The A. depilans digestive gland revealed to be essentially composed by polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and xanthophylls. Regarding the anti-inflammatory potential in RAW 264.7 cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide, it was observed that this matrix has capacity to reduce nitric oxide (NO) and L-citrulline levels, which suggests that its compounds may act by interference with inducible nitric oxide synthase. Taking into account the results obtained, A. depilans digestive gland may be a good source of nutraceuticals, due to their richness in health beneficial nutrients, such as carotenoids and long-chain PUFA.
Highlights
The marine environment comprises an immense diversity of living organisms, which is still underexplored compared to terrestrial ones
The fatty acids profile of A. depilans digestive gland was established by gas chromatography- mass spectrometry (GC-MS), after saponification and derivatization to their respective methyl esters
To the best of our knowledge, all these compounds are described for the first time in this species
Summary
The marine environment comprises an immense diversity of living organisms, which is still underexplored compared to terrestrial ones. In the last few decades, a large number of metabolites with diverse biological capacities has been intensively isolated from marine organisms, such as algae, sponges and mollusks [1]. The genus Aplysia, belongs to the class Gastropoda, possesses a wide geographical distribution and includes several species, commonly known as sea hares. These mollusks are soft-bodied marine invertebrates, without physical protection, and ingest relatively large fragments of algae, requiring a complex digestive system to extract nutrients from the food they consume. Aplysia depilans (Gmelin, 1791) (Figure 1) is usually found in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean, from
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
