The Composition of Three Types of Seaweed

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The proximate composition (protein, lipid, carbohydrate, ash and moisture) of three groups of seaweed; Green algae (Ulva lactuca and Enthromorpha intestinalis); Brown algae (Colpomenia sinuosa and Sargassum illicifolium) and Red algae (Gracilaria corticata and Hypnea valentiea) collected from the Persian Gulf coastal water were showed in table 1. Burtin, (2003) indicated that the protein content in brown algae generally is low (5-15% of the dry weight) compared with red and green algae (10-30% of dry weight), and the content also varies according to species and seasons cycle (Fleurence, 2004). In this study, the protein content of both red and green algae were significantly higher than brown algae (P<0.05), and the maximum content was attained from G. corticata (18.4±1.3%) and U. lactuca (17.1±1.6%) to minimum content for C. sinuosa (9.0±0.9%) and S. illicifolium (9.9±1.8%), that coincided with those reported by Matanjun et al., (2009); Chakraborty & Santra (2008); Manivannan et al., (2008). The diversity of protein content of seaweeds depends on factors like season and environmental conditions changes (Dawczynski et al., 2007).

In comparison to other biochemical components, seaweeds generally are low in lipid (1-5% of dry weight) (Polta & Ozogol, 2008; Burtin, 2003). The lipid content in green algae was significantly higher than both red and brown algae (P<0.05). The highest lipid content was recorded in U. lactuca (3.6±0.2) and E. intestinalis (2.9±0.3) and the lowest content for C. sinuosa (1.5±0.2%) and G. corticata (1.8±0.5). These findings are relatively lower than those reported by Chakraborty & Santra (2008) in E. intestinalis (7.1±1.3%) and U. lactuca (4.4±0.3%), and higher than those estimated by Ortiz et al., (2006) i...

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... Seaweeds selectively are able to absorb elements from the seawater and accumulated in their thalli (Azmat et al., 2006), therefore their nutrient composition and value of nutrient changes with genus and species (Devi et al., 2009; Rupérez, 2002) determined that, edible brown and red seaweeds could be consumed as a food supplement to help deserving the recommended daily intake of some needful minerals and trace elements.

The analysis of the data revealed that, all of the seaweeds showed relatively higher minerals content (Table 3) than the value reported for common vegetables (lettuce and spinach) by USDA (2009). Of the selected common vegetables, potassium and magnesium content in spinach were comparable to all the seaweeds studied, and content of other minerals (Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu) were significantly lower than studied seaweeds both in lettuce and spinach (Table 3).

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