Determination of nutrient composition in five varieties ofKappaphycus Alvarezii from Semporna, Sabah

The objective of this study is to identify, quantify and compare the composition of important nutrients such as moisture content, ash, crude protein, crude fat, crude fibre, carbohydrate and fatty acids in each of the five varieties of K. alvarezii cultivated in Semporna, Sabah. The five varieties studied were Aring-aring, Crocodile, Giant, Green and Tangan-Tangan. Although factors like geographical location and harvesting time were controlled in this study, the nutrient composition of these varieties showed a considerable level of significant difference (p<0.05) among the studied varieties. In general, these seaweeds contained large amount of ash (29.25-38.13% DW) and carbohydrate (33.41-41.00% DW) while lipid content was the least component detected (0.16-0.64% DW). Tangan-tangan had the most amount of fibre (7.39±0.18% DW) and lipid content (0.64±0.04% DW), with which its lipid content had the most plentiful quantity of PUFA (25.32±0.07% DW). On the other hand, other variety like Aring-aring contained the largest amount of both protein (4.68±0.00% DW) and carbohydrate (41.00±0.03% DW) whereas Crocodile variety had the highest amount of ash (38.13±0.11 % DW), which means that it had a diverse mineral contained within it. Saturated fatty acids were determined to be slightly higher than unsaturated fatty acids in all the studied samples. Not with standing, unsaturated fatty acids especially the PUFA of omega-3 and omega-6 types were detected to be quite high in amount (12.47-25.32%). Variation of the nutrient composition of the studied samples, could be caused by differences in the varieties and environmental factors in particular the seasonal changes (monsoonal periods) in which there are interrelationship between water temperature, salinity, nutrient and seasonal changes that would then have effects on the nutrient composition.