Extraction of sterols in brown macroalgae from Antarctica and their identification by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

This study reports for the first time the extraction and quantification of sterols in six species of brown macroalgae from Antarctica: Adenocystis utricularis, Ascoseira mirabilis, Cystosphaera jacquinotii, Desmarestia anceps, Desmarestia antarctica, and Himantothallus grandifolius. Ultrasound irradiation was used as a promotor to extract sterols from algal biomass. The extracts were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for sterol quantization (ergosterol, brassicasterol, fucosterol, β-sitosterol, campesterol, cholesterol, and stigmasterol). In general, fucosterol was the most abundant (6.60 to 48.13 mg kg−1), followed by β-sitosterol (5.29 to 16.49 mg kg−1), stigmasterol (2.69 to 14.84 mg kg−1) in five of the six examined algae. The sterol campesterol was found in lower concentrations (0.07 to 0.15 mg kg−1) in all studied samples.