I try to make some food products from this species. Please provide me some articles on this question if answer is "yes".
Enteromorpha intestinalis highly concentrated in the coastal belt of Gulf of Mannar, Rameswaram to Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu. They are available throughout the year and can be stored for long periods in dry form. Seaweeds do not absorb toxic amounts of any element. It provides hundreds of organic compounds and is toxin free. There are extensive studies on nutritional value of fresh water algae like spirulina but seaweeds are yet to be popularized and promoted. Seaweeds added in small amounts are power houses of nutrition.
http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/5570/6/06_chapter%201.pdf
Dear Prosenjit,
I agree with Krishnan and I personally found its ok to eat and also ate few types of cookies with bits of the green seaweeds. Please find a couple of papers on the biochemical composition of some common sea weeds.
Enteromorpha intestinalis or Ulva intestinalis as it should be correctly named is highly edible. It is one of the species sold worldwide under the name aonori or green aonori. I do not agree with the comments given above considering accumulation of toxins however. Although the seaweed itself is not toxic (there are no toxic seaweeds), it's composition reflects what is present in the water and it is known to accumulate heavy metals, such as Cu, Cd, Zn, etc. (viz. Chakraborty and Owens 2014, Chakraborty et al. 2014), PCBs (Cheney et al. 2014) and other pollutants. So, if you were to harvest this species for food production, best to harvest from a site that is generally clean,so not in harbours or close to emission pipes.
- Chakraborty, S., T. Bhattacharya, et al. (2014). "Benthic macroalgae as biological indicators of heavy metal pollution in the marine environments: A biomonitoring approach for pollution assessment." Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 100: 61-68.
- Chakraborty, S. and G. Owens (2014). "Metal distributions in seawater, sediment and marine benthic macroalgae from the South Australian coastline." International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology 11(5): 1259-1270.
- Cheney, D., L. Rajic, et al. (2014). "Uptake of PCBs contained in marine sediments by the green macroalga Ulva rigida." Marine Pollution Bulletin 88(1-2): 207-214.
Some details are in:
http://www.algaebase.org/search/species/detail/?species_id=37
I fully concur with Erik above. Seaweeds readily absorb heavy metals, so much so that they have been considered for use as bioremediation agents for heavily polluted bays etc. Seaweeds may also contain radioactive nucleotides and microalgae-produced toxins. Seaweeds should only be eaten if they are from clean unpolluted waters, otherwise you are taking a big health risk.
There are a number of reports indicating that a number of green seaweeds including Ulva/Enteromorpha intestinalis. can be eaten. However, one should consider the area where these seaweeds have been collected to avoid problems mentioned in the previous discussions.
In Cuba we do not eat them. But what have been found is that besides the heavy metal accumulation, if these algae grow in polluted waters, a lot of bacteria grow on their surface. So they should be dried or desinfected with UV radiation or some other method before be eaten.
If you can read Spanish you can search: Cano, M., Díaz, J., Valdés-Iglesias, O., Bustio, I., 2007. Componentes químicos y biomasa de Ulva fasciata (Chlorophyta) en la costa Norte de la Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba. Hidrobiológica. 17, 41-51.
Cano, M., 2008. Bases biológicas de Ulva fasciata Delile, (Chlorophyta) para su posible explotación, al oeste de La Habana, Cuba. PhD Thesis. Universidad de La Habana, pp. 103.
DJ in PU is using this green algae for salad, in CU she used to use red algae
Genus Enteromorpha merged with Ulva, so now there is no more Enteromorpha intestenalis it is Ulva intestinalis.Normally it occurs along the mid littoral regions of the intertidal rocky surfaces. Genus can tolerate higher desiccated period than other species. Coming to its economic importance, this genus widely used as food, fodder in several countries. Species of this genus shows the antimicrobial properties also.
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