Lipids and Composition of Fatty Acids of Saccharina latissima Cultivated Year-round in Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture

This study is evaluating the seasonal lipid and fatty acid composition of the brown seaweed Saccharina latissima. Biomass was sampled throughout the year (bi-monthly) at the commercial cultivation site near a fish farm in an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) and at a reference site in Denmark (2013-2014).

Generally, there was no difference in the biomass composition between sites; however, significant seasonal changes were found. The lipid concentration varied from 0.62%-0.88% dry weight (DW) in July to 3.33%-3.35% DW in November (p < 0.05) in both sites. The fatty acid composition in January was significantly different from all the other sampling months.

The dissimilarities were mainly explained by changes in the relative abundance of 20:5n-3 (13.12%-33.35%), 14:0 (11.07%-29.37%) and 18:1n-9 (10.15%-16.94%). Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA's) made up more than half of the fatty acids with a maximum in July (52.3%-54.0% fatty acid methyl esters; FAME).

This including the most appreciated health beneficial PUFA's, eicosapentaenoic (EPA; 20:5n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3), but also arachidonic (ARA) and stearidonic acid (SDA), which are not found in land vegetables such as cabbage and lettuce. Compared to fat (salmon) and lean fish (cod) this seaweed species contains higher proportions of ARA and SDA, but lower EPA (only cod) and DHA.

Conclusively, the season of harvest is important for the choice of lipid quantity and quality, but the marine vegetables provide better sources of EPA, DHA and long-chain (LC)-PUFA's in general compared to traditional vegetables.