Overview
Razi Parjikolaei and colleagues characterized nine North Atlantic red macroalgae species from Denmark for nutrients, minerals, and heavy metals. The source includes dry-weight metal data and explicitly flags food/feed relevance because some species exceeded source-cited arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), or lead (Pb) limits. The PDF was fetched under a salt query because the paper discusses seaweed as a low Na/K salt-replacement ingredient, but the actual matrix is red macroalgae.
Key numbers
All values below are source-reported dry-matter concentrations.
- Palmaria palmata total arsenic was 4.7 ppm.
- Danish Chondrus crispus cadmium was 0.5 ppm.
- Danish Palmaria palmata cadmium was 0.14 ppm.
- Chondrus crispus lead was 6.4 ppm.
- Palmaria palmata lead was 1.1 ppm.
- The paper states that Chondrus crispus and Porphyra rubens exceeded food-limit values for Cd and Pb in its Figure 4 metal profile.
- The paper reports low Na/K ratios across the nine seaweeds, spanning 0.08-2.54, and carbohydrate fractions of 40-71% dry matter.
The discussion identifies additional species-patterns for minerals and trace elements: Porphyra rubens had the highest Fe, Mg, Se, Mn, chromium (Cr), and Mo; Chondrus crispus had the highest Ca; Delesseria sanguinea had the highest Cu; Delesseria carnosa had the highest Na and Zn; and Gracilaria vermiculophylla had the highest K.
Methods (brief)
The authors collected Gracilaria vermiculophylla from Horsens Fjord and the other eight red macroalgae from Fornaes, Denmark, in September 2011. Samples were rinsed, dried at 40 C to constant weight, milled, and analyzed for trace elements. Metals were measured primarily by ICP-MS on an Agilent 7500 cs, with Cd and Zn by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The method used internal standards and correction for mass overlaps, including As/Cd-related interferences.
Implications
- Certification: Adds dry-weight total arsenic, cadmium, lead, and other trace-element evidence for red seaweed/kelp food matrices. Arsenic is total arsenic only; no inorganic arsenic substitution is supported.
- Courses: Useful for comparing nutritional seaweed claims with contaminant screening and for teaching why seaweed matrix and species identity matter.
- App: Supports Seaweed, Seaweed/kelp foods (nori, wakame, kombu, dulse — as food products), and algae/seaweed supplement context.
Related evidence
- Ingredient class — algae/seaweed-based
- Arsenic, Total
- Cadmium
- Lead
- Chromium
- Copper
- Zinc
- Iron
- Manganese
- Molybdenum
Update history
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