How Biological Activity in Sea Cucumbers Changes as a Function of Species and Tissue

Sabrina Sales; Helena M Lourenço; Narcisa M Bandarra; Cláudia Afonso; Joana Matos; Maria João Botelho; Maria Fernanda Pessoa; Pedro M Félix; Arthur Veronez; Carlos Cardoso

doi:10.3390/foods13010035

How Biological Activity in Sea Cucumbers Changes as a Function of Species and Tissue

Foods. 2023 Dec 21;13(1):35. doi: 10.3390/foods13010035.

Authors

Sabrina Sales^{1

2

3}, Helena M Lourenço^{1

4}, Narcisa M Bandarra^{1

4}, Cláudia Afonso^{1

4}, Joana Matos¹, Maria João Botelho^{2

4}, Maria Fernanda Pessoa³, Pedro M Félix⁵, Arthur Veronez⁶, Carlos Cardoso^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Aquaculture and Upgrading (DivAV), Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA, IP), Rua Alfredo Magalhães Ramalho 6, 1495-006 Lisbon, Portugal.
² Division of Oceanography and Marine Environment (DivOA), Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA, IP), 1495-165 Lisbon, Portugal.
³ GeoBioTec, Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology (UNL), Largo da Torre, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.
⁴ Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), University of Porto, Rua dos Bragas 289, 4050-123 Porto, Portugal.
⁵ MARE-Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre/ARNET-Aquatic Research Network, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, 1749-017 Lisbon, Portugal.
⁶ Centre for Functional Ecology-Science for People & the Planet, Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal.

Abstract

Biological activity and bioactive compound content in sea cucumbers was assessed, considering Parastichopus regalis, Holothuria mammata, Holothuria forskali, and Holothuria arguinensis as species and intestine, muscle band, respiratory tree, body wall, and gonads as tissues. P. regalis had the lowest content in phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity in contrast to Holothuria species. In the respiratory tree, the highest phenolic concentration was recorded in H. arguinensis, 76.4 ± 1.2 mg GAE/100 g dw vs. 21.0-49.0 mg GAE/100 g dw in the other species. H. arguinensis had the highest DPPH and FRAP results in the gonads, 13.6 ± 0.7 mg AAE/100 g dw vs. 2.6-3.5 mg AAE/100 g dw and 27.1 ± 0.3 μmol Fe²⁺/g dw vs. 8.0-15.9 μmol Fe²⁺/g dw, respectively. Overall, P. regalis biomass presented the highest anti-inflammatory activity levels and H. arguinensis the lowest anti-inflammatory levels. The respiratory tree was the most anti-inflammatory (measured by the inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2, COX-2) tissue in H. mammata and H. forskali (also the muscle band in this case), 76.3 ± 6.3% and 59.5 ± 3.6% COX-2 inhibition in 1 mg/mL aqueous extracts, respectively. The results demonstrated a variable bioactive potential and advantage in targeting antioxidant properties in the muscle band and anti-inflammatory activity in the respiratory tree, which may constitute a starting point for a biorefinery approach envisaging multiple applications.

Keywords: anti-inflammatory; antioxidant; aqueous extracts; bioactive content; holothurians.

Grants and funding

The research was funded by “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” (FCT) via national funds within the scope of the project MARE (UIDP/04292/2020), CIIMAR (UIDB/04423/2020 and UIDP/04423/2020), and the Associate Laboratory ARNET (LA/P/0069/2020). The experimental work was funded by the projects AQUAMAX (Ref.: 16-02-01-FMP-0047) and NEWCUMBER (Ref.: MAR-02.01.01-FEAMP-0052) and by IPMA/PNAB-DCF (IPMA Portuguese National Programme for Biological Sampling, PNAB, integrated in the EU Data Collection Framework, DCF).