Fatty Acid Profile and Proximate Composition of Gonads from Wild Echinometra vanbrunti during an Annual Cycle: Suitability for Human Consumption

ABSTRACT

Human consumption of sea urchin gonads has led to overexploitation of commercial species, and the search for new marketable species to promote the recovery of exploited populations. Echinometra vanbrunti is a promising candidate for commercial exploitation. Its annual reproductive cycle has an effect on the proximate composition of the gonads; if they were to be consumed, the best quality in biochemical composition was determined to be from December to May, when nutritive phagocytes uphold the highest contents of protein and lipid. They possess considerable levels of omega-3 essential fatty acids, predominantly eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids, quite important for human nutrition. A subtle trend of higher DHA levels during the growing, premature, and mature gonadal stages of females and males was observed, though it is strongly influenced by diet and environment. A program to protect and regulate the sustainable extraction needs to be put in place before commercial exploitation.

KEYWORDS:

• Echinometra vanbrunti
• gonads
• fatty acid profile
• proximate composition

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Ulises Becerra-Lamadrid and Fulgencio García-Ochoa, staff of the Kino Bay Experiment Station, University of Sonora, for their valuable support collecting the organisms. The mention of trademarks or proprietary products does not constitute an endorsement of the product and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products that may also be suitable.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for this research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.