title: Characterization of agarophytic seaweeds from the biorefinery context.
abstract: The major seaweed components such as natural colorants (R-phycoerythrin (R-PE), R-phycocyanin (R-PC)), minerals, proteins, lipids, cellulose and agar which are of considerable commercial value were estimated in 15 different agarophytic seaweeds. R-PE and R-PC contents ranged from 138.33 ± 17.67 to 1039.43 ± 27.65 μg/g and 50.26 ± 6.63 to 818.2 ± 48 μg/g on fresh weight (fw) basis, respectively. Appreciable amounts of both macro-minerals (K, Na, Ca, Mg) and micro-minerals (Fe, Zn, Se, Mn) were estimated. The total lipid and protein contents were 0.65 ± 0.06% to 1.53 ± 0.07% and 4.75 ± 0.5% to 19.31 ± 3.5% on dry weight (dw) basis respectively while cellulose and agar contents varied from 3.7 ± 0.13% to 12.20 ± 0.45% and 9.17 ± 0.62% to 25.23 ± 0.50% dw, respectively. The overall finding of this study enable the selection and value addition of agarophytic feedstock for biorefinery.
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Marine Biotechnology and Ecology, CSIR - Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar 364002, Gujarat, India; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Ravi S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Baghel
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Marine Biotechnology and Ecology, CSIR - Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar 364002, Gujarat, India; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi, India. Electronic address: crk@csmcri.org.
authors.forename: C R K
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Marine Biotechnology and Ecology, CSIR - Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar 364002, Gujarat, India; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Bhavanath
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jha
mesh_terms: D000362:Agar / Q000737:chemistry*; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D002482:Cellulose / Q000032:analysis; D008055:Lipids / Q000032:analysis; D008903:Minerals / Q000032:analysis; D010860:Pigments, Biological / Q000032:analysis; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D012624:Seaweed / Q000737:chemistry*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids; D008903:Minerals; D010860:Pigments, Biological; D011506:Proteins; D000362:Agar; D002482:Cellulose
keywords: Agar; Agarophytes; Cellulose; Pigments; Protein