Biochemical Composition Of The Marine Ascidian Eudistoma Viridae From Thoothukudi Coast.

Abstract

An investigation on the Ascidian fauna in Tuticorin coast, India was carried out to update the biochemical value of colonial ascidians Eudistoma viridae. Ascidians are marine filter-feeders commonly investigated for  marine natural products development, such as anti-cancer and anti-malarial drugs. Biochemical study was carried out to evaluate the protein, carbohydrate, lipid, aminoacids, and fatty acids content of ascidian in tissue a dry matter (DM) basis. It could be inferred from this study that Eudistoma viride has 4.3% of protein, 3.2% of carbohydrates and 2.3% of lipid. amino acid content in Eudistoma viridae was 46.3%. Among them, the essential amino acids (EAA) 23.8% and non-essential amino acids (NEAA) 22.5% were observed. The highest concentration is formed by lysine (3.3%) for essential and aspartic acid (4.1%) for non -essential amino acids. Valine (1.1%) and serine (0.9%) shows the lowest concentration of essential and non -essential amino acids respectively. There are seven individual fatty acids were identified in the present study. Among them the poly unsaturated ,fatty acids were the dominant fatty acids. The mono unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and saturated fatty acid were the second most common fatty acids. The polyunsaturated fatty acid  (12.0%), mono unsaturated fatty acid (7.7%) and saturated fatty acid (5.2%) contributed to the total amount of fatty acids. These results indicated that the biochemical composition and subsequently the nutritional value of these ascidians are not only genetically determined but also influenced by its maturity stage and type of ingested food.