Assessment of the Nutritional Value of Cultured Sea Cucumber Apostichopus japonicus

The sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) is a high-priced and appreciated food. Output of cultured sea cucumber has been increasing in China. From a nutritional point of view, there is still limited data on the chemical composition of cultured sea cucumber from pond and cage aquaculture. Therefore, the nutritional value of sea cucumber from 4 important aquaculture regions of Dalian, Yantai, Qingdao, and Putai in China were evaluated in the present work. The proximate composition, except for protein, and the profiles of amino acid and fatty acid were significantly different among the aquaculture regions, especially, saturated fatty acids (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The cultured sea cucumbers were rich in glutamine (66.90–71.60 g kg−1), glycine (54.30–58.90 g kg−1), and leucine (29.20–32.40 g kg−1) and showed a high content in PUFA (35.26%–46.47%), especially eicosapentaenoic (EPA, 10.04%–16.04%). All cultured sea cucumber have the recommended essential amino acid/total amino acid (0.33–0.35), lysine/arginine (0.66–0.74), and n-6/n-3 ratio (0.52–1.88) for good health status of humans and very low level of atherogenic and thrombogenic indices (0.20–0.36 and 0.21–0.29, respectively). The results indicate that the cultured sea cucumber has a nutritional value perfectly compatible with nutritious and healthy diets