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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Biotechnology and Bioproducts
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1410005
This article is part of the Research Topic 13th Asia-Pacific Marine Biotechnology Conference (13th APMBC) and 5th Australia New Zealand Marine Biotechnology Society Conference (5th ANZMBS) View all 5 articles

Nutritional Profiling of Five New Zealand Seaweedsa preliminary assessment

Provisionally accepted
Zoe V. Battershill Zoe V. Battershill *
  • Coastal Marine Field Station, School of Science, University of Waikato, Tauranga, New Zealand

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study set out to provide a preliminary assessment of nutritional profiles of five selected New Zealand macroalgae to investigate the potential of land-cultivated Ulva spp. The New Zealand seaweeds species, selected from a limited range, were either collected from the wild (Pyropia plicata from Tauranga and Kaikōura), or were sourced from commercial wild harvest suppliers (Macrocystis pyrifera and Undaria pinnatifida), and were compared to land-based cultivated Ulva species (Ulva ralfsii and Ulva stenophylloides). Species were assessed for their content of crude protein, total lipids, carbohydrates, fibre, amino acids, mineral profiles, heavy metals and antioxidant capacity (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, ORAC). The two cultivated Ulva spp. had the highest crude protein content of the six seaweeds analysed (approximately 21% dw, N×6.25), as expected with nutrient supplemented cultivation. They also had the highest total, essential and branched chain amino acid quantities (151, 70, and 29 mg/g for U. stenophylloides and 138, 62, and 27 mg/g for U. ralfsii). Though the two Ulva spp. were grown to the same cultivation specifications, they varied in carbohydrate and total fibre content (U. stenophylloides: 63% and 62%; U. ralfsii: 39% and 40%, respectively). Pyropia plicata collected in Kaikōura had the highest carbohydrate levels (65%) though not the highest total fibre. Both P. plicata had the highest trace minerals (417 mg/ kg and 720 mg/ kg for Kaikōura and Tauranga P. plicata respectively). All seaweeds analysed showed no lipophilic antioxidants, though the two Phaophycea had the highest hydrophilic antioxidant content at 115 TE and 168 TE for Macrocystis pyrifera and Undaria pinnatifida, respectively. This paper provides a preliminary indication of the relative nutritional attributes of a range of potential New Zealand seaweed aquaculture targets benchmarked against sea-lettuce (Ulva spp.).

    Keywords: algae, macroalgae, Seaweed, protein, nutrition

    Received: 31 Mar 2024; Accepted: 02 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Battershill. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zoe V. Battershill, Coastal Marine Field Station, School of Science, University of Waikato, Tauranga, New Zealand

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