Nutrient Composition and Calorific Value of Some Seaweeds from Bet Dwarka, West Coast of Gujarat, India

Abstract

Seaweeds are used many folds for animal and human food, soil manure, salt extractions (soda, iodine etc.) and colloid production (agar-agar, alginate, carrageenan, furcellaran etc.), cosmetics and pharmaceutics. These represent important economical resources in world wide, where they are not only largely harvested but also intensively and largely employed in the human nutrition. Mineral composition of seaweeds was found relatively higher as compared to the land vegetables. Keeping the significance in mind, in current work nine seaweeds such as Chaetomorpha spp., Cladophora facicaularis, Ulva lactuca, Caulerepa racemosa, Caulerepa sertularioides, Valoniopsis pachynema, Sargassum ilicifolium, Sargassum polycustum and Porphyra vietnamensis growing along the Bet Dwarka, West Coast of Gujarat, India were collected and analyzed for nutrient / mineral composition like Mg, K, Na, Ca, S, N, Cl and P, ash content and calorific value. The nutrient concentration ranges found for each sample, were as follows:  Mg, 70.4-248.1; K, 16.6-128.04; Na, 78.7-129.07; Ca, 121-476.67; S, 101.11-214.99; N, 34.31-56.34; Cl, 26.12-235.66; and  P, 0.78-1.53 expressed in g/100 g dry weight.  Calorific content and ash content, ranged between 11.3-22.6 MJ/Kg and 23.0-41.9 g/100 g dry weight, respectively. Calorific content was negatively correlated with ash content and nutrient composition, but ash content was found to be positive correlation with mineral composition of selected sea weeds. Key words: Seaweeds, Ulva lactuca Nutritional composition, Calorific content, Ash contentDOI: 10.3126/on.v7i1.2565Our Nature (2009) 7:18-25