Biochemical composition and antioxidant potential of the edible Mediterranean sea cucumber Holothuria tubulosa.

The sea cucumber or holothurian is a marine species which has been prized in some Asian countries for its nutritional qualities. The purpose of this work was to study the biochemical composition and free radical scavenging and antioxidant activities of Holothuria tubulosa tegument from the Bizerta lagoon in northern Tunisia. The obtained data demonstrated that the extract of sea cucumber teguments exhibited high biochemical levels (such as moisture 80.77%, protein 7.07%, lipids 10.21%, energy value 13.64 Kcal/g ww), and an important nutritional value (including n-3/n-6: 2.11, EPA+DHA: 20.96, AI: 1.38 and TI: 0.54). High antioxidant activities were recorded in the integument by the radical scavenging tests of ABTS and DPPH as well as by the total antioxidant capacity and the FRAP in comparison with the BHT standard. Our results showed that H. tubulosa tegument has high nutritional value with high antioxidant activities and could be considered a nutraceutical product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]