Abstract:
This study was conducted at Bidong Island, Terengganu. Sea cucumber has emerged
world widely as an important economic commodity due to their significance as
nutritional supplement product, medicine and also food. Scientific study was done to
prove those importances of sea cucumber by studying fatty acids contain in the body
wall of Stichopus sp. The lipids from the fresh sea cucumber were obtained by the
solvent extraction and the fatty acids methyl ester (FAME) was obtained from onestep
method. There are four different extractions in one-step method, that were hexane
extract, chloroform extract, ethyl acetate extract and dry sample of the sea cucumber.
The concentration and percentage of fatty acids obtain were compared with the four
extractions. The result shown that hexane extract contain high concentration and
number of fatty acids from the isolation of the sea cucumber. Stichopus sp. contains
high concentration of saturated fatty acids (SAFA) and least of polyunsaturated fatty
acids (PUF A). The most dominant fatty acids found from Stichopus sp. were Palmitic
acid (Cl6:0), Stearic acid (Cl8:0), Palmitoleic (Cl6:l n9c), Erucic acid (Cl8:ln9t),
cis-11-Eicosenoic acid (C20: 1 n 11 c ), Arachidonic (AA, C20:4n6) and cis-
5,8, 11, 14, 17-Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5n3).