Rhodophyta, Ochrophyta and Chlorophyta macroalgae from different sub-Antarctic regions (Chile) and their potential for polyunsaturated fatty acids

Assessment of Arabian Gulf Seaweeds from Kuwait as Sources of Nutritionally Important Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs)

“…They had a characteristic FA profile of higher C18 PUFAs than C20 PUFAs, 11.2 to 21.8-fold higher in Ulva spp. and 3.0-fold higher in C. papillatum in congruence with previous studies [4,11,14,15,[43][44][45][46][47][48]. The contents of long-chain PUFAs 5c8c11c14c-20:4 and 5c8c11c14c17c-20:5 were considerably lower as compared with red and brown seaweeds (1.2-2.2%) (Table 2).…”

“…Nevertheless, seaweeds feature low lipid contents (<5% d.w.) [2,4,[11][12][13]. Seaweed lipids have received considerable interest due to their high contents of nutritionally essential n3 and n6 PUFAs [3,11,14,15] that cannot be synthesized by humans and are thus obtained only through dietary sources. Moreover, seaweeds also synthesize long-chain PUFAs (LC-PUFAs) such as arachidonic acid (ARA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are not present in land plants [2,4,11,[14][15][16][17].…”

“…Seaweed lipids have received considerable interest due to their high contents of nutritionally essential n3 and n6 PUFAs [3,11,14,15] that cannot be synthesized by humans and are thus obtained only through dietary sources. Moreover, seaweeds also synthesize long-chain PUFAs (LC-PUFAs) such as arachidonic acid (ARA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which are not present in land plants [2,4,11,[14][15][16][17]. These essential LC-PUFAs are physiologically important and are involved in the regulation of membrane structure and function, transcription regulation, cell signaling, and generation of bioactive lipid mediators such as prostaglandins [18].…”

“…Furthermore, seaweed FA profiles represent distinct conserved chemotaxonomic traits that have been extensively used to classify seaweeds to different taxonomic levels of genus, family, order, and phylum [4,11,14,15,17]. The taxon-specific understanding of FA profiles of seaweeds is necessary for selecting appropriate seaweed taxa for their valorization as human food, animal feed, or development of other nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and cosmeceutical products [4,14].…”

“…The taxon-specific understanding of FA profiles of seaweeds is necessary for selecting appropriate seaweed taxa for their valorization as human food, animal feed, or development of other nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and cosmeceutical products [4,14]. Therefore, it is not surprising that numerous seaweeds have been studied from different parts of the world for their fatty acids and this dataset is continuously growing [15,25,[28][29][30]; still, the absolute number of seaweeds studied is low considering the overall seaweed diversity, with approximately 10,000 species been reported worldwide [31].…”