Evaluation of physicochemical properties of Enteromorpha and Chaetomorpha macroalgae

The use of lipid-based active compounds of algae in foods is growing. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the biochemical properties of the macroalgae Enteromorpha and Chaetomorpha species. In the present study, Enteromorpha and Chaetomorpha were extracted, and fat content, total protein, total phenolic content using the Folin-Ciucalteu colorimetric method, antioxidant capacity by ABTS radical scavenging assay, and fatty acid profiles using gas chromatograph (GC) with a flame ionization detector (FID) were measured. The results showed that the total fat contents of Chaetomorpha and Enteromorpha were 0.3 and 0.4, respectively. The protein content of Chaetomorpha was 12.54 mg/mL. The phenolic content increased as the concentration of the algae extract increased, indicating a positive relationship between the concentration and phenolic content of the extracts. Also, the highest antioxidant capacity was observed for Chaetomorpha (the highest percent inhibition of ABTS free radical and lowest IC50 values), and the lowest antioxidant capacity was found for Enteromorpha (the lowest percent inhibition of ABTS free radical and highest IC50 values) ( p < 0.05). Among the identified fatty acids, the highest amount was observed for palmitic acid ( Enteromorpha < Chaetomorpha ), followed by oleic ( Enteromorpha < Chaetomorpha ) and linoleic ( Enteromorpha < Chaetomorpha ) acids. Therefore, macroalgae can be introduced as species with bioactivity because of their large amounts of beneficial bioactive compounds such as phenols, high antioxidant capacity and the presence of fatty acids/omega-3 and omega-6.