Fatty acid profiles of marine red alga Gracilaria spp (Rhodophyta, Gigartinales)

Abstract

Species of Graci/aria from Gulf of Mannar were analyzed for their fatty acid composition. The major fatty acids sllch as myristic acid, myristoleic acid. palmatic acid, paimiloleic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid 'were ;nalyzcd by gas liquid chromatography. The qualitative and the quantitative di5tri bution of above fatty acids exhibited wide variation among the species of different habitat. The fatty acid content of the species collected from the same locality also showed quantitative variation depending on their distribution and the availability of light intensity to the particular species