Collection of S. horrens in plastic pens inside the Bolinao Marine laboratory. The sea cucumber Stichopus horrens contains many bioactive compounds and uses various anti-predator mechanisms. Credit: Hiyas A. Junio, 2022, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
A small team of marine scientists and chemists from the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Marine Science has discovered that a type of sea cucumber found locally could have biomedical applications. In their study, reported in the open access journal PLOS ONE, the group conducted a metabolomic study of Stichopus cf. horrens, a species of sea cucumber found off the coast of the Philippines.
Sea cucumbers found off the coasts of many islands in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia, like those of related species in Asia, have long been considered a culinary and medicinal delight . After being collected at sea, they are usually dried before being sold to the public. In this new effort, the research team noted that very little research has been done on the species; thus, it is unclear whether the claims of medicinal benefits are true. To find out, they conducted a study in their laboratory.
The researchers obtained several cucumber samples and performed metabolomic analysis, a process that involves chemical and biological analysis with the goal of identifying compounds that could be used as a food source or medical therapy.
They discovered that sea cucumbers contained an abundance of bioactive compounds in the material that makes up the walls covering their bodies as well as in several of their internal organs.
Among the types of compounds discovered were phosphatidylcholines, which are found in a wide variety of foods, such as soy, eggs, sunflower and mustard. Some studies have suggested that these compounds may relieve pain associated with ulcerative colitis: the compounds tend to reduce inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract when ingested.
The research team also discovered several phosphatidylethanolamines, which they say are likely linked to a stress response in sea cucumbers when faced with a threat, such as humans harvesting them from the seafloor. They suggest that further study of sea cucumbers could reveal useful compounds and the impact of processing methods on these compounds.
More information:
Vicenzo Paolo M. Torreno et al, Complete metabolomics of Philippine Stichopus cf. horrens reveals various classes of valuable small molecules for biomedical applications, PLOS ONE (2023). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294535
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