Research Article: Biochemical composition and investigation on the economic feasibility of sodium alginate production of brown seaweed Sargassum illicifolium (Turner) C. Agardh, 1820 from Chabahar Bay (Gulf of Oman, Iran)

More than 3000 MT of Sargassum illicifolium ,annually washed-up from the Oman Sea (Sistan and Baluchestan province). , According to the estimates of the Iranian Fisheries Sciences Researchinstitiute.The brown seaweed biomass has been considered as one of the best free sources for production of sodium alginate. A key objective of this study was to determine the biochemical composition of Sargassum illicifolium collected from Chabahar Bay in November 2018 and to understand the economic potential and cost drivers of sodium alginate on basis of the present macroalgae. Alginates were purified by re-precipitation with ethanol and characterized by infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that the Chabahar Sargassum was characterized by total protein (TP), total lipid (TL) and carbohydrate as 9.8±0.8%, 4.4±0.2% and 33.2±4.1% dry weight, respectively. The ash content contained 41.6±2.3% DW. Moreover, the n-6/n-3 ratio was 2.62 and total essential amino acids and total minerals were 29.1±0.2 mg g-1 DW and 102. 2±0.6 mg g-1 DW, respectively. sodium alginate of Sargassum illicifolium was found to be high as 28.2% purification with molecular weight of 8.06×105 g mol-1. Its total production price was evaluated 7.66 $ per kg sodium alginate, which is much cheaper than existing ones on the Iranian market.