title: Chemical compositions of the marine algae Gracilaria salicornia (Rhodophyta) and Ulva lactuca (Chlorophyta) as a potential food source.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The nutritional compositions of two edible red (Gracilaria salicornia) and green (Ulva lactuca) seaweeds were determined to evaluate their possible uses as potential food ingredients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In general, these species contained limited amounts of lipids ranging between 0.99 and 2.00 g 100 g(-1) dry weight) and considerably high amount of minerals, especially in G. salicornia (38.91 g 100 g(-1) d.w.). The crude protein values varied between 9.58 and 10.69 g 100 g(-1) d.w. Amounts for total amino acids were 889.78 ± 22.64 mg g(-1) protein d.w. in G. salicornia and 543.3 ± 15.14 mg g(-1) protein d.w. in U. lactuca. The most abundant fatty acids were C12:0, C16:0, C20:4 ω6 and C22:5 ω3, in addition to C18:1 in G. salicornia. Both seaweed species were balanced sources of ω3 and ω6 fatty acids with a ratio of ω6/ω3 that varied between 1.2 and 1.17. Between the seaweeds investigated, high levels of K (2414.02-11 380.06 mg 100 g(-1) d.w.) were observed and the amounts of Ca, Na and Fe were higher than those reported for land plants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, G. salicornia and U. lactuca may be utilised as value-added products for human nutrition purposes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Fisheries, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, Mazandaran, Iran. Mtabarsa@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tabarsa
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rezaei
authors.forename: Zohreh
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ramezanpour
authors.forename: Joseph Robert
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Waaland
mesh_terms: D004032:Diet; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000032:analysis*; D004044:Dietary Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3 / Q000032:analysis; D043371:Fatty Acids, Omega-6 / Q000032:analysis; D044724:Gracilaria / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008903:Minerals / Q000032:analysis*; D009753:Nutritive Value; D012624:Seaweed / Q000737:chemistry*; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000032:analysis*; D044445:Ulva / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats; D004044:Dietary Proteins; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3; D043371:Fatty Acids, Omega-6; D008903:Minerals; D014131:Trace Elements