Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Lipid Related Compounds Including Carotenoids and
Antioxidants
Fish Oil
Lipids play a major role in human nutrition and health while accounting
for about 40% of the total calories in most of the industrialized countries
(Gordon and Ratlif, 1992). Fish oils, especially of marine origin, are unique
compared to other lipids. Fish oils or lipids (mainly marine lipids) have
been considered as an available source of omega-3 fatty acids, especially
docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eiocsapentaenoic acid (EPA) (Aidos et
al., 2001; Gbogouri et al., 2006). The various mechanisms by which EPA
and DHA prevent/modify cardiovascular diseases have been reviewed
(Gordon and Ratlif, 1992; Connor, 2000; Holub, 2002; Tapiero et al., 2002;
Li et al., 2003; Calder, 2003; Bhaskar et al., 2006a).
Carotenoids
Apart from the PUFA, marine by-products are also rich sources of
carotenoids, especially processing wastes of crustacean shellfi shes.
Crustacean wastes are one of the major sources of recoverable natural
carotenoids, especially astaxanthin (Shahidi et al., 1998; Armenta-Lopez
et al., 2002; Sachindra et al., 2005a, b, 2006a, b; Simpson, 2007). The subject
of physiological benefi ts of astaxanthin has been reviewed (Sachindra and
Mahendrakar 2005; Sachindra et al 2006b; Olaizola 2008).
Chitin and Chitosan
Chitin is the second most abundant biopolymer that is composed of
N-acetyl-D-glucosamine units and gives structural strength to insects and
crustacean shells. Native chitin is insoluble and has limited applications
ranging from large scale technical applications in functional membranes,
food technology and protein precipitation, to very sophisticated applications
on medicine and cosmetics (Tsugitta, 1990; Knorr, 1991; Taranathan and
Kittur, 2003; Hayes, 2008b). Shellfi sh like crab, shrimp, prawn, lobster and
cray fi sh contain 14-35% chitin on dry matter basis (Tsugita, 1990; Rao et
al., 2000; Healy et al., 2003; Bhaskar et al., 2007a). Chitosan can be best
defi ned as a family of polymers with varying deacetylation levels, size
and charge distribution (Tharanathan and Kittur, 2003). Preparation of
chitiosan with the aid of enzymes and its characterization (Vishnukumar
et al., 2004a, b; Kittur et al., 2005), chitosan fi lms for food packaging
(Taranathan, 2003; Srinivasa et al., 2004b), properties of dried chitosan fi lms
(Tharanathan, 2003; Srinivasa et al., 2004a), biodegradation of chitosan
(Harish Prashanth et al., 2005), safety of chitosan coating (Ramesh et al.,
2004) and characterization of depolymerized products of chitosan (Harish
Prashanth and Taranathan, 2005) have been recently reported.
