Malays. Appl. Biol. (2015) 44(1): 41-49
STEROLS IN SURFACE SEDIMENTS OF THE REDANG ISLAND, TERENGGANU
MASNI MOHD ALI1,3*, KAMARUL ARIFIN MUSA1, TERENCE RICKY CHIU1, SITI AISHAH MOHD ALI2 and NORFARIZA HUMRAWALI1
1School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
2Water Research Unit, School of Science and Technology,
Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
3Associate Researcher, Institute of Oceanography and Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia
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ABSTRACT
A total of ten surface sediment samples collected around the Redang Island, Terengganu were used to evaluate sterol variations in the study area. The sediment samples were extracted and analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS). Generally, the study area is dominated by cholesterol which accounted for 32% of total sterols, followed by phytosterols (27%), marine sterols (20%), fecal sterols (17%) and cholestanol (4%). The sterol source index (SSI) showed low input of phytosterols indicated terrestrial plants source. This might be due to influence of the marine environment of the study area. Furthermore, the sewage contamination index clarified the study area was not contaminated by sewage. The presence of sterols in the study area was derived from various sources which were dominated by inputs from marine sources.
Key words: sterol, cholesterol, phytosterol, the sterol source index (SSI)
