Table 3.
Overview of the current level of validation of the candidate biomarkers of seaweed intake
| Food item | Metabolites | Biofluid locations | Questionsa | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||
| Brown seaweed | Hydroxytrifuhalol A | Hydrolyzed urine | Y | U | Y | U | U | U | U | U |
| Brown seaweed | 7-Hydroxyeckol | Hydrolyzed urine | Y | U | Y | U | U | U | U | U |
| Brown seaweed | C-O-C dimer of phloroglucinol | Hydrolyzed urine | Y | U | Y | U | U | U | U | U |
| Brown seaweed | Dioxinodehydroeckol glucuronide | Urine | Y | U | Y | U | U | U | U | U |
| Brown seaweed | Diphlorethol sulfate | Urine | Y | U | Y | U | U | U | U | U |
| Brown seaweed | Fucophloroethol glucuronide | Urine | Y | U | Y | U | U | U | U | U |
| Brown seaweed | Fucoxanthinol | Plasma | Y | U | Y | U | U | U | U | U |
aThe criteria are 1, plausibility; 2, dose response; 3, time response; 4, robustness; 5, reliability; 6, stability; 7, analytical performance; 8, reproducibility. The full text of questions Q1–Q8 is reported in Additional file 1: Text S1. Possible answers are Y (yes, the criterion is fulfilled for at least some use of the biomarker), N (no, the criterion has been investigated but it was not fulfilled), or U (uncertain, the criterion has not been verified or data is not available). The questions are based on the criteria outlined by Dragsted et al. [17]