Determination of the Nutrient and Toxic Element Content of Wild-Collected and Cultivated Seaweeds from Hawai'i.

Abstract

For centuries, Hawaiians have gathered seaweed for food, medicine, and ceremonial purposes. Seaweed contains nutrients, but some varieties can accumulate toxic elements. We measured target macrominerals (Na, Mg, P, K, Ca), microminerals (B, V, Mn, Co, Cu, Zn, Mo), and nonessential/toxic elements (As, Sr, Cd, Sn, Hg, Pb, and U) in a sample of wild-collected and cultivated seaweeds from Hawai'i. The samples consisted of brown (Sargassum aquifolium, Sargassum echinocarpum), red (Gracilaria parvispora, Halymenia formosa, Halymenia hawaiiana), and green (Ulva ohnoi) seaweed. Elemental composition was determined by inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-atomic emission spectroscopy and ICP-mass spectrometry (MS). Speciation of As was conducted by using liquid chromatography-ICP-MS. S. echinocarpum per 80 g serving was high in Ca (~37% daily value [DV]), U. ohnoi was high in Mg (~40%DV), H. formosa was high in Fe (~40%DV), and G. parvispora was high in Mn (~128%DV). In this study, the highest amounts of toxic elements were observed in S. aquifolium and S. echinocarpum (27.6 mg inorganic As/kg fdw), G. parvispora (43.3 mg Pb/kg fdw) and H. formosa (46.6 mg Pb/kg fdw). These results indicate that although seaweeds from Hawai'i contain a variety of nutrients, some species can accumulate high amounts of toxic elements.