Study of the correlation between trace elements, sterols and fatty acids in brown algae from the Saronikos gulf of Greece

Summary In the whole plant of brown algae species Colpomenia sinuosa, Cystoseira compressa, Dictyopteris membranacea, Dictyota dichotoma, Dictyota linearis, Padina pavonica, Sargassum accinarium and Stypocaulon scoparium collected from Saronikos gulf of Greece, the trace elements antimony, cesium, chromium, cobalt, europium, iron, rubidium, scandium, strontium, thorium and zinc were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis. In the same samples the sterols campesterol, cholesterol, fucosterol stigmasterol and the fatty acids linoleic, linolenic, myristic, oleic, palmitic, palmitoleic and stearic acid were determined by gas-liquid chromatography. Statistical analysis included the calculation of the correlation coefficient and multiple correlation was applied in all analytical data. The results showed that the sterol pattern of Padina pavonica is different from all the other examined species. A high fucosterol content should be accompanied by very low concentrations or absence of a number of other constituents. Linoleic and linolenic acids present a strong linear correlation between them. Stearic acid seems to play a role in the life process of brown algae due to its significant correlation with fucosterol and with strontium. The high content found for the latter must be an evidence for the selective accumulation of this element from brown algae as mentioned in literature. A multiple correlation was found between sterols, saturated fatty acids and other single constituents studied in this work.