Sea cucumbers, sometimes referred to as marine ginseng, produce numerous compounds with diverse functions and are potential sources of active ingredients for agricultural, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical products. We examined the viscera of an Australian sea cucumber Holothuria lessoni Massin et al. 2009, for novel bioactive compounds, with an emphasis on the triterpene glycosid...

This work reports for the first time the nutritional profile and antioxidant potential of the edible sea cucumber Holothuria arguinensis from the North-eastern Atlantic. H. arguinensis has high levels of protein, with the amino acids profile dominated by alanine, glycine and proline and low lysine/arginine ratios. Its carbohydrate and energetic contents are also low as well as the total lipid l...

BACKGROUND Emergence of antimicrobial resistance toward a number of conventional antibiotics has triggered the search for antimicrobial agents from a variety of sources including the marine environment. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial potential of Holothuria leucospilota from Qeshm and Kharg Islands against some selected bacteria and fungi. MATERIALS AND M...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), also named cancerous hepatoma, is the most common type of malignant neoplasia of the liver. In this research, we screened the Persian Gulf sea cucumber Holothuria parva (H. parva) methanolic sub-fractions for the possible existence of selective toxicity on liver mitochondria isolated from an animal model of HCC. Next, we purified the most active fraction. Thus th...

Sea cucumbers are prolific producers of a wide range of bioactive compounds. This study aimed to purify and characterize one class of compound, the saponins, from the viscera of the Australian sea cucumber Holothuria lessoni. The saponins were obtained by ethanolic extraction of the viscera and enriched by a liquid-liquid partition process and adsorption column chromatography. A high performanc...