Sterol profiles in 18 macroalgae of the Portuguese coast

• Autor(a) principal: Lopes, Graciliana
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: Sousa, Carla, Bernardo, João, Andrade, Paula B., Valentão, Patrícia, Ferreres, Federico, Mouga, Teresa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/8241
• topic: Chlorophyta; Macroalgae; Pha-eophyta; Rhodophyta; Sterols

The sterol profiles of dominant macroalgae occur-ring in the western Portuguese coast were evaluated.An analytical procedure, involving alkaline hydrolysisand extraction followed by separation by reversed-phase HPLC–diode array detection (HPLC–DAD),was optimized for the study of their sterols composi-tion. The validated methodology is short in analysistime (as the compounds are determined in <20 min),sensitive, reproducible, and accurate. It was thensuccessfully applied to the determination of campes-terol, cholesterol, desmosterol, ergosterol, fucosterol,stigmasterol, andb-sitosterol in 18 species (threeChlorophyta, five Rhodophyta, and 10 Phaeophyta).The profiles obtained for the several macroalgalspecies were considerably different. C29 sterolswere predominant in Phaeophyta and Chlorophyta(71%–95% of total sterol content), while in Rhodo-phyta cholesterol content is significantly higher(34%–87%). Among the studied species,AsparagopsisarmataHarv. contained the lowest sterol amount(555 mgÆkg)1dry weight), andCystoseira tamariscifo-lia(Huds.) Papenf. the highest one (6,502 mgÆkg)1dry weight). Data obtained may be helpful inidentifying suitable marine sources of sterols, withpotential applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries.