Findings and scope
This data article reports postharvest quality, carrageenan yield and viscosity, phenolics and four metals for 24 commercial lots of sun-dried Kappaphycus seaweed from Bulukumba, Takalar, Palopo and Pangkep in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, sampled during one production cycle in March to June 2022 (PDF p.1, p.8). Group means ranged from 0.040 to 1.760 mg/kg for total mercury, 0.280 to 0.740 mg/kg for cadmium and 0.140 to 0.930 mg/kg for lead; tin was not detected (Table 2, PDF p.6). The highest mercury and lead were in the Takalar lots harvested after more than 35 days. Metals were measured in the whole dried seaweed; carrageenan was extracted only to measure yield and viscosity.
Key numbers
Mean ± SD of three lots, mg/kg of as-received dried seaweed (Table 2, PDF p.6). Tin was not detected in any group (detection limit 0.025 mg/kg).
| Location and harvest age | Total mercury | Cadmium | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bulukumba, under 35 days | 0.080 ± 0.000 | 0.380 ± 0.030 | 0.160 ± 0.010 |
| Bulukumba, over 35 days | 0.040 ± 0.000 | 0.640 ± 0.000 | 0.190 ± 0.000 |
| Takalar, under 35 days | 0.160 ± 0.010 | 0.280 ± 0.000 | 0.330 ± 0.000 |
| Takalar, over 35 days | 1.760 ± 0.010 | 0.490 ± 0.010 | 0.930 ± 0.150 |
| Palopo, under 35 days | 0.550 ± 0.010 | 0.580 ± 0.010 | 0.620 ± 0.080 |
| Palopo, over 35 days | 0.230 ± 0.010 | 0.740 ± 0.010 | 0.310 ± 0.040 |
| Pangkep, under 35 days | 0.240 ± 0.020 | 0.560 ± 0.000 | 0.140 ± 0.000 |
| Pangkep, over 35 days | 0.110 ± 0.000 | 0.460 ± 0.000 | 0.240 ± 0.000 |
Methods and Evidence Fitness
Lots were analysed as received, without washing or further drying, after cutting, grinding and sieving (PDF p.8). About 0.50 g of homogenised powder was digested in nitric acid by microwave and analysed by atomic absorption spectrometry (PerkinElmer PinAAcle and Shimadzu GFA-7000), following Indonesian national methods for lead, cadmium and mercury; results are “expressed as mg/kg of as-received commercially dried seaweed” (PDF p.9). Moisture in these lots was 21.27 to 30.27% (Table 1, PDF p.5), so the values are neither fresh-weight nor dry-weight. A single detection limit of 0.025 mg/kg is printed. No certified reference material, recovery or blank is reported, and the atomisation mode for mercury is not stated.
Evidence Fitness is Modeled or limited evidence. The design (three randomly selected independent lots per group, lot as the statistical unit) is clear and the table is reconstructable. The data describe dried carrageenan raw material from one season; they do not describe carrageenan as a food additive, whose metal content after alkaline extraction and alcohol precipitation was not measured.
Assessment limits
Eleven of the 24 metal cells print a standard deviation of 0.000 across three independently collected 5 kg lots, which is unusual for biological lots and may reflect rounding (Table 2, PDF p.6). The table prints “n.d.” while the footnote defines “ND”. The authors state that several lots exceeded the limits of the Indonesian dried-seaweed standard SNI 2690:2023 but do not print the limits or name the lots (PDF p.6). Species identity was not confirmed. Environmental variables at the farms were not measured (PDF p.11). Raw replicate data and processed values are held in Mendeley Data (doi 10.17632/grsrshxffp.3); only the numbers printed in the PDF were captured, and the repository was not consulted.
Provenance notes
The PDF (13 pages) was delivered in batch 03 of order HMI-GAP-INGEST-1 on 22 October 2026, filed under the carrageenan ingredient folder. The SHA-256 matches the batch manifest. The PDF prints DOI 10.1016/j.dib.2026.113178 on the first page, and the printed title matches the manifest description (Data in Brief 2026, Kappaphycus seaweed dataset from South Sulawesi covering carrageenan and heavy metals).
Related evidence
Update history
22 October 2026: Ingested from the batch-03 PDF. 32 dried-seaweed records were added to the evidence register (24 quantified, 8 not detected).
Update history
No substantive edit history is available in this build. The full commit record is available in git.