ISSN: 0973-7510
E-ISSN: 2581-690X
South East Coast of India especially Mallipattinam is rich in seaweed vegetation. Our information is incomplete regarding their biochemical composition especially chlorophyll content and thus their economic importance. Gracilaria edulis were collected from four stations for the study area. Physico-chemical parameters such as atmospheric and surface water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and nutrients like phosphate, nitrate, nitrite and silicate were studied. The variation in chemical constituents such as chlorophyll, carotenoids, starch, glucose and protein of algae were discussed in relation to physicochemical factors. It is concluded that maximum amount of agar concentration observed from our study areas. So, this Gracilaria species also can be used as a source of food grade agar and also used in pharmaceutical industrial product.
Gracilaria edulis, Mallipattinam coastal area, Agar
© The Author(s) 2009. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.