Event Abstract

Back to Event

Preliminary studies on lipidic compounds from Catostylus tagi with antioxidant behaviour

Zilda Morais1*, Rita Rodrigues1 and Marco Silva2
  • 1 Egas Moniz Cooperativa de Ensino Superior, CiiEM, Portugal
  • 2 Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Chemistry Department, Portugal

Research in algae and marine invertebrates for the discovery of new food supplements and drugs is a promising activity. Although these beings have a high moisture content, generally above 90%, the remaining compounds are essential for the organism's survival and reproduction; therefore, many of the metabolites synthesized by them, in response to environmental stresses, are molecules with biological activity in humans (Rocha et al, 2015; Mayer et al, 2010). The jellyfish Catostylus tagi (Fig.1) is an abundant natural resource of the Tagus and Sado estuaries, in Portugal, which sinthetizes polymers that can be transformed into water soluble peptides with anti-hypertensive action, due to angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibiton, without presenting the colateral effect of drugs such as Captopril, as already demonstrated (Morais & Soeiro, 2015). In addition to these peptides, previous studies have shown that C. tagi jellyfish has hydrophilic molecules with significant antioxidant capacity. The oral arms have shown to be the part of the jellyfish with the highest activity directed to the hydroxyl radical HO • (55 ug ml-1), while umbrella presented increased activity on superoxide radical O2 • - (620 ug ml-1). The compounds responsible for the radical decay had variable sizes, 10 kDa to 0.5 kDa, and diverse nature, from protein macromolecules to inorganic compounds. Nevertheless, they were all soluble in water (Morais et al, 2009). Later studies revealed that C. tagi has molecules capable of acting in lipophilic environment and significantly slow down the photo-oxidation and autoxidation of triacylglycerols, as evidenced by the reduction of peroxides content in virgin olive oil (Serrano et al, 2015). Many antioxidants, if not most, have phenolic-like structures. Currently, more than 8000 phenolic structures, from simple molecules to large polymers, have been reported; several have shown additional anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic effects. In relation to marine organisms, brown algae are known to synthetize the phenolic compounds phlorotannins, like tetrafucol and eckol, nowadays being intensively studied (Vo et al, 2012; Eom et al, 2012). In the present work our purpose is to clarify the structure of the more abundant lipophilic compounds occurring in the umbrella, oral arms and gonads of C. tagi and to determine its antioxidant activity to selected radicals. The isolated parts were freeze-dried and extracted with chloroform. As expected, a greater abundance of lipids in oral arms, then the umbrella and finally the gonads, respectively 3.6; 3.1; 1.8 g by 100 g dry weight, was confirmed. In the three extracts the characteristic absorption of aromatic compounds was detected while no, or small amount, of carbonyl compounds were present. On the basis of a gallic acid calibration curve for the Folin-Ciocalteu reaction, our preliminary results showed different amounts of total phenolics in umbrella, oral arms and gonads (P < 0.05), the mean values being 8; 14 and 18 mg phenolics per gram of crude chloroform extract, respectively. Preliminary chromatography revealed coincident compounds in all parts, though at different concentrations, such as cholesterol, and specific compounds of each part that are currently being identified by mass spectrometry.

Figure 1
Image

Acknowledgements

This research is funded by Egas Moniz Cooperativa de Ensino Superior, project EM-ZM 03/04

References

Eom, S. H., Kim, Y. M., & Kim, S. K. (2012). Antimicrobial effect of phlorotannins from marine brown algae. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 50(9), 3251-3255.

Mayer, A. M., Glaser, K. B., Cuevas, C., Jacobs, R. S., Kem, W., Little, R. D., ... & Shuster, D. E. (2010). The odyssey of marine pharmaceuticals: a current pipeline perspective. Trends in pharmacological sciences, 31(6), 255-265.

Morais Z. & Soeiro R. (2015). Extractos de medusa para inibição da actividade da enzima conversora da angiotensina. PT106423; 14 pags

Morais, Z. B., Pintão, A. M., Costa, I. M., Calejo, M. T., Bandarra, N. M., & Abreu, P. (2009). Composition and in vitro antioxidant effects of jellyfish Catostylus tagi from Sado Estuary (SW Portugal). Journal of Aquatic Food Product Technology, 18(1-2), 90-107.

Rocha, J., Calado, R., & Leal, M. (2015). Marine Bioactive Compounds from Cnidarians. In Hb25_Springer Handbook of Marine Biotechnology (pp. 823-849). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Serrano, L., Cruz, A., Sousa, S., & Morais, Z. (2015). Alterations in monovarietal, blended and aromatized Portuguese virgin olive oils under four storage conditions for 12 months. European Food Research and Technology, 1-15.

Vo, T. S., Ngo, D. H., & Kim, S. K. (2012). Marine algae as a potential pharmaceutical source for anti-allergic therapeutics. Process Biochemistry, 47(3), 386-394.

Keywords: Composition of Portuguese marine invertebrates, Marine lipidic antioxidant, Jellyfish phenolic compounds, New Potential anti-allergenic, Renewable marine resources

Conference: IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2016, Peniche, Portugal, 14 Jul - 15 Jul, 2016.

Presentation Type: Oral presentation

Topic: SeaFood Technology

Citation: Morais Z, Rodrigues R and Silva M (2016). Preliminary studies on lipidic compounds from Catostylus tagi with antioxidant behaviour. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: IMMR | International Meeting on Marine Research 2016. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.04.00114

Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.

The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.

Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.

For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.

Received: 14 May 2016; Published Online: 13 Jul 2016.

* Correspondence: Prof. Zilda Morais, Egas Moniz Cooperativa de Ensino Superior, CiiEM, Almada, 2829-511, Portugal, zmorais@egasmoniz.edu.pt