Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) comprise a wide range of compounds with low molecular weight that are released from seaweeds as secondary metabolites. Therefore, the aim of this work was to evaluate the profile of VOCs from six sub-Antarctic macroalgae by means of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. Results indicated that the studied seaweeds contained approximately 40 different compounds found as aldehydes, ketones, hydrocarbons and alcohols, for instance. For brown macroalgae, hexanal was found in greater amounts (12.87–29.46%) followed by 2-pentylfuran (5.52–11.61%) and pentadecane (4.29–10.28%), while red seaweeds were mainly composed of heptadecane (27.79–85.12%), hexanal (1.78–11.62%) and benzaldehyde (1.36–2.87%). Further evaluation using principal component analysis showed that distinct compositions of VOCs could differentiate brown and red seaweeds. Therefore, sub-Antarctic macroalgae had their VOCs elucidated for the first time assisting in the efforts for understanding their biochemical constitution as well as supporting in further potential pharmacological and biotechnological applications.

挥发性有机化合物（VOC）包含各种从海藻中释放出来的低分子量化合物，作为次生代谢产物。因此，这项工作的目的是通过气相色谱-质谱法评估来自南极六个亚藻类的VOC的分布。结果表明，所研究的海藻包含大约40种不同的化合物，例如醛，酮，烃和醇。对于棕色大型藻类，己醛含量较高（12.87–29.46％），其次是2-戊基呋喃（5.52–11.61％）和十五烷（4.29–10.28％），而红藻主要由庚烷组成（27.79–85.12％）。 ，己醛（1.78–11.62％）和苯甲醛（1.36–2.87％）。使用主成分分析的进一步评估表明，挥发性有机化合物的不同成分可以区分棕色和红色海藻。因此，首次阐明了南极海藻中的挥发性有机化合物，这有助于他们了解其生化组成并为进一步的潜在药理和生物技术应用提供支持。