Biochemical composition of seaweeds from Mandapam coastal regions along Southeast coast of India.

Abstract

Seaweeds have been used since ancient times as food, fodder, fertilizer and as source of medicine today seaweeds are the raw material for many industrial productions like agar, algin and carrageenan but they continue to be widely consumed as food in Asian countries [1]. They are nutritionally valuable as fresh or dried vegetables, or as ingredients in a wide variety of prepared foods [2]. In particular, certain edible seaweeds contain significant quantities of protein, lipids, minerals and vitamins [3-5], although nutrient contents vary with species, geographical location, season and temperature [6, 7]. The nutritional properties of seaweeds are not yet noted and they are usually estimated from their chemical composition alone [8, 9]. Compared to land plants, the chemical composition of seaweeds has been poorly investigated and most of the available information deals only with traditionally Japanese seaweeds [10-12]. The chemical composition of seaweeds varies with species, habitats, maturity and environmental conditions [13]. The protein content in the marine algae was estimated by [14-18]. Chidambaram and Unny [14] analyzed proteins in the species of Sargassum, Turbinaria and Gracilaria. Neela [15] estimated the protein, fat, calcium, phosphorous, iron, iodine and vitamin-C contents in Gracilaria sp. Gracilaria lichenoides, Hypnea sp. and Ulva lactuca. In CMFRI, studies were carried out on the chemical composition of the marine algae growing in the vicinity of Mandapam [16, 19-21]. Extensive works were carried out by Lewis and Gonazalves [22-27]; Lewis [28-34] on amino acids present in free state on protein and peptide hydrolysates in many green, brown and red seaweeds. A considerable amount of work on the volatile components, biochemica