Recent development of health foods enriched with DHA, EPA and DPA in Japan

摘要

We Japanese have received more blessing from the oceans than in many other countries in the world, and depended on them for hundreds of years in supplementing our daily diet. I understand that the changes somewhat away from our seafood-based dietary style have led to, and resulted in, the increased incidence of several chronic diseases prevailing in Western industrialized countries. In order to cope with these new diseases, we have looked to the marine environment for answers. In looking at preventive medicine, many useful ingredients for foodstuffs, medical and cosmetic materials can be found in marine resources, Among these resources, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid; C20:5, #omega#3) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid; C22:6, #omega#3) can be regarded as marine materials studied so far most extensively. In addition, DPA (docosapentaenoic acid; C22:5, #omega#3) has recently appeared again as a focus topic; a specific DPA research institution has been established and has begun to conduct developmental studies on this marine lipid. The aim of this paper is to summarize the recent development of the marine lipids, EPA, DHA and DPA in Japan.