Abstract—The total lipid contents of local sea cucumbers; Holothuria scabra Jaeger, H. leucospilota Brandt, H. atra Jaeger and Stichopus horrens Selenka were determined with the respective results on dry matter basis 0.72%, 1.42%, 0.99% and 1.55%. Meanwhile, the free fatty acids composition for each lipid extract showed all species contained arachidonic acid (C20:4n6) of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) of which S. horrens being the highest 42.41% followed by H. atra, 24.76%, H. leucospilota, 23.23% and H. scabra, 19.63%. H. scabra, H. leucospilota and H. atra were rich in palmitic acid (C16:0) of saturated fatty acids (SFA); 52.66%, 35.63% and 34.21%, respectively. Myristic acid (C14:0) of SFA was higher in S. horrens (24.36%). However, the fatty acids eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) [C20:5] were very low for all species; H. scabra (1.12%), H. leucospilota (1.34%), H. atra (0.17%) and S. horrens (0.79%). Docosahexanoic acid (DHA) was only detected in S. horrens, i.e. 0.32%. Thus, the results of this study indicated that different species of sea cucumber varies in its lipid content and free fatty acids composition.

Index Terms—Lipid, free fatty acids, sea cucumbers.

Ridzwan Hashim is with the International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia (e-mail: dr-ridzwan@yahoo.com).

 

Cite: B. H. Ridzwan, M. H. Hanita, M. Nurzafirah, M. P. Siti Norshuhadaa, and Z. Farah Hanis, "Free Fatty Acids Composition in Lipid Extracts of Several Sea Cucumbers Species from Malaysia," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 204-207, 2014.