NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF DRIED SEAWEED Turbinaria decurrens: BIOCHEMICAL INSIGHTS AND HEALTH BANEFITS

Turbinaria decurrens, the tropical brown seaweed, was analyzed for its biochemical composition, which includes proximate, fatty acid, amino acid, and mineral contents. This research aims to investigate the feasibility of utilizing brown seaweed as an alternative source of human nutrition derived from the ocean. Proximate (moisture, fat, ash, protein, and carbohydrate) and minerals (calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and iron) were determined by the standard method of AOAC. In contrast, phosphor was determined by the spectrophotometric method. Amino acid was determined by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography and fatty acid by gas chromatography. The results indicated that the significant proximate content was carbohydrates, ash, moisture, protein, and fat, which were 61.44%, 16.73%, 15.78%, 4.34%, and 1.71%, respectively. The primary mineral content was calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphor, and iron, which were 42,991 mg/kg, 19,222 mg/kg, 10,402 mg/kg, 8,180 mg/kg, 237 mg/kg, and 166.9 mg/kg, respectively. The significant component of saturated fatty acids was palmitic acid, myristic acid, lauric acid, and stearic acid, which were 0.61%, 0.08%, 0.08%, and 0.06%, respectively. The two significant monounsaturated fatty acid components were oleic acid and palmitoleic acid, which were 0.39% and 0.04%, respectively. In comparison, polyunsaturated fatty acids were arachidonic acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, eicosatrienoic acid, and eicosapentaenoic acid, which were 0.19%, 0.1%, 0.07%, 0.02%, and 0.02%, respectively.