Zainal Arifin

Medicinal and health benefit effects of functional sea cucumbers

Sea cucumbers have long been used as food and traditional medicine in Asian countries with Stichopus hermanni, Thelenota ananas, Thelenota anax, Holothuria fuccogilva, and Actinopyga mauritiana as most highly-valued species. These organisms are potential source of high value-added compounds with therapeutic properties such as triterpene glycosides, carotenoids, bioactive peptides, vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, collagens, gelatins, chondroitin sulfates, amino acids. In the recent years, health benefit effects of sea cucumbers have been validated through scientific research and have shown medicinal value such as wound healing, neuroprotective, antitumor, anticoagulant, antimicrobial, and antioxidant. These functional materials lead to potential development in various foods and biomedicine industries. In this review, we have presented a general view of major medicinal and health benefit effects of functional sea cucumbers from Asia region. The structural significance and the potential application of sea cucumber-derived functional materials as well as their nutritional value are also discussed.

Heavy metal pollution and its relation to the malformation of green mussels cultured in Muara Kamal waters, Jakarta Bay, Indonesia

Jakarta Bay has become contaminated by both organic and inorganic pollutants, including heavy metals. This study aimed to examine the effect of heavy metal pollution on green mussels cultured in Muara Kamal Waters, Jakarta Bay over seven months. In this research, the water quality was assessed, through measuring the concentrations of the heavy metals, Hg, Pb, Cd, Cr, and Sn in the water, and in the tissue of green mussels that had been cultured there for seven months. The percentage of congenital abnormalities (malformations) in the green mussels was analyzed descriptively and the relationship between the water quality, heavy metals, and green mussel malformation was studied through principal component analysis (PCA). The result showed that the heavy metals concentrations in the water and sediment exceeded the quality standard at Muara Kamal but that in other respects the water quality was quite good. The green mussels cultured there for seven months had accumulated high concentrations of heavy metals, and ±60% of them had malformations of their shells. Based on the heavy metal concentrations in their bodies, the main cause of malformations in green mussels was suspected to be Pb, Hg, and Sn. However, the result of PCA showed it was the interaction between nitrogen compounds, phosphate, turbidity, salinity, pH, as well as the heavy metals in the water that determined the green mussel abnormality.

Observed transport variations in the Maluku Channel of the Indonesian Seas associated with western boundary current changes

AbstractThe Maluku Channel is a major opening of the eastern Indonesian Seas to the western Pacific Ocean, the upper-ocean currents of which have rarely been observed historically. During December ...