Comparative Contents of Minerals and Dietary Fibres in Several Tropical Seaweeds

Abstract

Nine species of Indonesian green, brown and red seaweeds were used in this experiment to study the distribution and contents of minerals and dietary fibres. The contents of macro and microminerals were detected by atomic absorption spectrophotometer and inductively coupled argon plasma emission spectrometer, respectively; whereas dietary fibres were determined according to modified enzymatic-gravimetric method. The contents of macromineral were dominated by Ca, K, Na and Mg, with values range were 11.95–28.31, 0.30–27.92, 0.66–25.74, 2.31–21.52 mg/g dry weight, respectively; whereas microminerals Cu, Fe and Zn were found in low concentration. The highest and smallest content of soluble dietary fibre were found in Kappaphycus alvarezii and Halimeda macroloba, respectively. K. alvarezii also had the highest content of total dietary fibre and percent soluble dietary fibre against total dietary fibre, whereas Ulva reticulata had highest content of insoluble dietary fibre.