Phytoprostanes, autoxidation products of α-linolenic acid, have been studied in several plant species, but information regarding the natural occurrence of this large family of biologically active oxidized lipids in macroalgae is still scarce. In this work, the free phytoprostane composition of 24 macroalgae species belonging to Chlorophyta, Phaeophyta, and Rhodophyta was determined through a recently validated UHPLC-QqQ-MS/MS method. The phytoprostane profiles varied greatly among all samples, F1t-phytoprostanes and L1-phytoprostanes being the predominant and minor classes, respectively. No correlation between the amounts of α-linolenic acid in alga material and phytoprostane content was found. Therefore, it was hypothesized that the observed variability could be species-specific or result from interspecific interactions. This study provides new insight about the occurrence of phytoprostanes in macroalgae and opens doors for future exploitation of these marine photosynthetic organisms as sources of potentially bioactive oxylipins, encouraging their incorporation in food products and nutraceutical and pharmaceutical preparations for human health.
Keywords: GC-MS; UHPLC-QqQ-MS/MS; macroalgae; oxidized lipids; phytoprostanes; α-linolenic acid.