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

Species of Gracilaria from Gulf of Mannar were analyzed for their fatty aci d composition. The major fatty acids such as myristic acid, myristoleic aci d, palmatic acid, palmitoleic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid and linoleic a cid were analyzed by gas liquid chromatography. The qualitative and the qua ntitative distribution of above fatty acids exhibited wide variation among the species of different habitat. The fatty acid content of the species col lected from the: same locality also showed quantitative variation depending on their distribution and the availability of light intensity to the parti cular species.