Comparison of Fatty Acid Composition of Wild and Cultured Sea Cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

This study compared the fatty acid composition of wild and cultured specimens of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. We extracted total lipids from the specimens and determined their fatty acid compositions through capillary gas chromatography, resulting in the identification of 53 fatty acids. We found that wild sea cucumbers were rich in palmitoleic (C16:1n-7) and eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5n-3), whereas cultured specimens were rich in eicosenoic (C20:1n-9) and arachidonic acid (C20:4n-6). In both types of sea cucumbers, the highest percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) consisted of polar lipids (PL), followed by total lipids (TL) and neutral lipids (NL). Cultured sea cucumbers contained a higher percentage of total lipids (TL) than wild sea cucumbers did, whereas there was no significant difference between the two groups in the percentages of neutral (NL) and polar lipids (PL).