Occurrence and patterns of nutritional traits and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sea cucumber (Holothuria polii) tissues: benefits and risk for human health

Objectives The paper evaluated the benefit and risk for human health associated with consumption of sea cucumber H. polii from Italian coasts (Central Mediterranean Sea). Materials and Methods body wall-BW, internal tunic-ITu, muscle bands-MB, alimentary canal-AC, gonad-Gd and respiratory tree-RT of H. polii were analyzed for proximate composition. Moreover, aminoacids, fatty acids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined with HPLC UV/Vis, GC-FID and GC-MS, respectively. Results Differences in the contents of Total Aminoacids (TAA) occurred based on tissue and sex, with AC and MB of female and Gd of male showing higher contents (range 47.8 -60.2 g/kg ww). Glycine and glutamic acid were the most abundant. Polyunsaturated (PUFA) was the major class of fatty acids and Arachidonic and Eicosapentaenoic (EPA) acids were the predominant PUFA. n-3 PUFA showed higher content in Gd, AC and RT indicating a higher quality. A favorable n-3/n-6 in the range 1.04-1.67 was observed. PAHs showed values ranged from 23 to 207 µg/kg ww with the highest levels in Gd-AC tissues and the lower in BW. Benzo[a]Pyrene, the most toxic compound, was detected in all tissues, of both sexes, at levels of 1.5-18 µg/Kg ww. Conclusion All tissues of H. polii, although with differences among them, are valuable food and can contribute for a healthy diet. Excess Cancer risk (CR) values for Gd and AC tissues, were above the considerable CR threshold of one in ten thousand established by USEPA, for high ingestion rate of these seafood.