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Amino acid composition and nutritive value of the alga Spirulina maxima
Author(s) -
Clément G.,
Giddey C.,
Menzi R.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740181101
Subject(s) - spirulina (dietary supplement) , amino acid , food science , algae , carotene , vitamin , chemistry , botany , composition (language) , biological value , biology , biochemistry , raw material , organic chemistry , linguistics , philosophy
Spirulina maxima is an alga, rich in organic nitrogenous constituents, used for food in the Chad Republic. Amino acids, vitamins, and nutritive value were determined for a strain of the algae grown in an open‐air pilot production unit. The dried alga, more than 60% of which was proteinaceous material, contained all the essential amino acids in fairly good concentration except that the amount of the sulphur amino acids was low. Nutrition experiments on rats showed that the biological value of the alga was acceptable and was correlated with the chemical score (protein index). Dried Spirulina maxima also contained several vitamins, particularly β‐carotene (pro‐vitamin A).