Asterias rollestoni is the starfish belonging to the phylum Echinodermata, class Asteroidea. Asterias rollestoni is widely distributed in Chinese waters. The resource of Asterias rollestoni is abundant, and the amount is up to hundreds of thousands of tons every year. Moreover, Asterias rollestoni is rich source of valuable bioactive components, such as lipids, proteins, asterosaponin and polysaccharides. Therefore, Asterias rollestoni has high nutritional values and development potentials as raw materials for marine drugs and functional foods. Extensive investigations of Asterias rollestoni on chemistry and pharmacology have been published in ample literatures at present, but no literature has been reported on Asterias rollestoni gonad lipids, especially on lipid extraction and component analysis. In order to optimize the lipid extraction technology and analyze the lipid and fatty acid compositions of Asterias rollestoni gonads, the extraction process of Asterias rollestoni gonad lipids was performed by microwave-assisted extraction, and the lipid and fatty acid compositions were also studied by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) respectively in this paper. Taking extraction rate as an index, the effects of extraction solvent, liquid-solid ratio, extraction time and extraction temperature were studied through the single-factor experiment and the orthogonal experimental design. The experimental results indicated that the optimal extraction process of Asterias rollestoni gonad lipids was as follows: ethyl acetate as solvent, liquid-solid ratio of 7 mL/g, extracting time of 10 min, and extracting temperature of 60 ℃. On the optimized conditions, the extraction yield was up to 33.82%, showing that microwave-assisted extraction method had the advantages of high efficiency and low energy consumption, and had a great application prospect for lipid extraction of Asterias rollestoni gonads. The predominant components of Asterias rollestoni gonad lipids were triglycerides and phospholipids, while the contents of cholesterol and free fatty acids were relatively low. Meanwhile, C14:0, C16:0, C18:1n-7, C20:1n-11, C20:5n-3 (eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA) and C22:6n-3 (docosahexaenoic acid, DHA) were the main fatty acids, and the content of C20:5n-3 and C22:6n-3 accounted for 21.56% of total fatty acids. Moreover, the contents of n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) were respectively 23.62% and 2.71%, and the ratio of n-3 to n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids was up to 8.72, which was significantly higher than the daily dietary ratio of n-3 to n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids recommended by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially C20:5n-3 and C22:6n-3 had positive effects on promoting the development of the nervous system and curative effects on preventing cardiovascular disease and anti-inflammatory. Additionally, the atherogenic index (AI) and thrombogenic index (TI) of Asterias rollestoni gonad lipids were 0.81 and 0.29, respectively. In conclusion, Asterias rollestoni gonad lipids have high nutritional values and great exploitation prospects, and can prevent effectively atherosclerosis and thrombosis, and also can be the important dietary sources of C20:5n-3 and C22:6n-3. The experimental results provide the theoretical basis for microwave-extraction, component analysis and comprehensive utilization of Asterias rollestoni gonad lipids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]