Study of Philippine sea cucumber shows it may have biomedical applications

A small team of marine scientists and chemists at the University of the Philippines, The Marine Science Institute, has found that a type of sea cucumber found locally may have biomedical applications. In their study, reported in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, the group conducted a metabolomic study of Stichopus cf. horrens, a species of sea cucumber found off the coast of the Philippines.The sea cucumbers found off the coast of many Philippine islands and other parts of Southeast Asia, like those of related species in Asia, have for a long time been considered both a culinary and medicinal delicacy. After retrieval from the sea, they are typically dried before sale to the public. In this new effort, the research team noted that very little research has been done on the species; thus, it is not known if claims of medicinal benefits are true. To find out, they conducted a study in their lab.The researchers obtained several samples of the cucumbers and conducted a metabolomic ...