Evaluation of the chemical composition and nutritional potential of brown macroalgae commercialised in China.

The nutritional and functional components of 12 commercial brown macroalgal samples currently available in the Chinese market were evaluated as well as the inter-relationships between their antioxidant properties and their nutritional contents including protein, lipid, fibre, polyphenols and flavonoids. The composition of macroalgae was variable with contents of ash, crude fibre, crude lipid, crude protein and total amino acids ranging between 14.59 and 64.30, 4.68-13.77, 0.35-4.72, 5.16-28.19, and 3.62-24.07 g/100 g DW, respectively. In general, the results revealed that brown macroalgae can be considered as a potential supplement source for multiple minerals (mainly Mg, P, K, Ca, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn), essential amino acids (1.48-10.48 g/100 g DW) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (24.48-247.18 g/100 g DW). The antioxidant capacity of the macroalgae tested was strongly correlated with their total polyphenolic contents (correlation coefficient 0.926, P < 0.01) and total flavonoid contents (0.927, P < 0.01). Grey correlation analysis indicates that...