Abstract
Jellyfish are recorded with increasing frequency and magnitude in many coastal areas and several species display biological features comparable to the most popular Asiatic edible jellyfish. The biochemical and antioxidant properties of wild gelatinous biomasses, in terms of nutritional and nutraceutical values, are still largely unexplored. In this paper, three of the most abundant and commonly recorded jellyfish species (Aurelia sp.1, Cotylorhiza tuberculata and Rhizostoma pulmo) in the Mediterranean Sea were subject to investigation. A sequential enzymatic hydrolysis of jellyfish proteins was set up by pepsin and collagenase treatments of jellyfish samples after aqueous or hydroalcoholic protein extraction. The content and composition of proteins, amino acids, phenolics, and fatty acids of the three species were recorded and compared. Protein content (mainly represented by collagen) up to 40% of jellyfish dry weight were found in two of the three jellyfish species (C. tuberculata and R. pulmo), whereas the presence of ω-3 and ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) was significantly higher in the zooxanthellate jellyfish C. tuberculata only. Remarkable antioxidant ability was also recorded from both proteinaceous and non proteinaceous extracts and the hydrolyzed protein fractions in all the three species. The abundance of collagen, peptides and other bioactive molecules make these Mediterranean gelatinous biomasses a largely untapped source of natural compounds of nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and pharmacological interest.
Highlights
In the last decades, the positive association between nutraceutical or functional food and human health prompted the search for bioactive compounds from living organisms
This is a non-indigenous or alien species introduced in the Mediterranean Sea by shellfish aquaculture, by the transfer of the polyp stage commonly living on bivalve shells
The amino acid (AA) profiles were more similar between the two rhizostome jellyfish C. tuberculata and R. pulmo, both as essential amino acid (EAA) and aromatic amino acids (AAA) percentages, as well as single AAs, where glutamine/glutamate were the most representative followed by Phe, Leu, Tyr, Thr, His and Ser (Table 2)
Summary
The positive association between nutraceutical or functional food and human health prompted the search for bioactive compounds from living organisms. Despite a low organic content, jellyfish have long been highly considered in Asiatic countries for their therapeutic value in the treatment of arthritis, hypertension, bone pain, and ulcers, as softening skin and improving digestion [31,32] These properties, described mainly in non-scientific publications [33], are likely attributable to the collagen, a structural protein family widely present throughout the animal tissues as prevailing component of extracellular matrices in connective tissues [34,35] and the main structural protein in the jellyfish body mass [32,36]. Enzymatic hydrolysates from jellyfish collagen are known to have protective effects on mice skin photoaging induced by UV irradiation higher than non-hydrolyzed jellyfish collagen [40] This mechanism is probably related to the in vivo antioxidative properties showed by collagen and peptides with high contents of glycine, proline, and hydrophobic amino acids [51]. Quali-quantitative identification and measurement of proteins, together with their antioxidant activity, and analysis of lipid content were carried out to assess biochemical values of these gelatinous organisms as putative novel food or for the production of jelly-related, low-cost raw materials for either animal feed or for applications in cosmetics or biomedical industries
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