Sevim Polat
Five seaweed species belonging to Phaeophyta and Rhodophyta were analyzed to determine the proximate composition and fatty acid profiles. Seaweeds were collected from ?skenderun Bay, the northeastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The Brown seaweeds (Sargassum acina-rum, Halopteris scoparia, Taonia atomaria, Dictyota dichotoma) and only one red seaweed (Liagora sp.) were used for the analysis. The highest protein content was obtained for D. di-chotoma (15.41 % dry wt) followed by T.atomaria (12.57 % dry wt). Lipid contents of sea-weeds ranged from 12.7 % for D. dichotoma to 0.02 % dry weight for H. scoparia. The ash contents of all algae species were found to be in the range of 15.15% and 63.55 % on a dry we-ight basis. The fatty acid compositions of seaweed species were in the range of 18.51-63.96 % saturated (SFA), 15.25-23.02 % monounsaturated (MUFAs) and 14.62-29.04 % polyunsatu-rated fatty acids (PUFAs). The highest dihomogammalinolenic acid (C20:3 n6, DGLA) content (.76) were determined in the brown seaweed, S. acinarum.
