Characterization of agarophytic seaweeds from the biorefinery context.

The major seaweed components such as natural colorants (R-phycoerythrin (R-PE), R-phycocyanin (R-PC)), minerals, proteins, lipids, cellulose and agar which are of considerable commercial value were estimated in 15 different agarophytic seaweeds. R-PE and R-PC contents ranged from 138.33 ± 17.67 to 1039.43 ± 27.65 μg/g and 50.26 ± 6.63 to 818.2 ± 48 μg/g on fresh weight (fw) basis, respectively. Appreciable amounts of both macro-minerals (K, Na, Ca, Mg) and micro-minerals (Fe, Zn, Se, Mn) were estimated. The total lipid and protein contents were 0.65 ± 0.06% to 1.53 ± 0.07% and 4.75 ± 0.5% to 19.31 ± 3.5% on dry weight (dw) basis respectively while cellulose and agar contents varied from 3.7 ± 0.13% to 12.20 ± 0.45% and 9.17 ± 0.62% to 25.23 ± 0.50% dw, respectively. The overall finding of this study enable the selection and value addition of agarophytic feedstock for biorefinery.