Sreenath K. Bhaskaran and Poornima Kannapan
An attempt has been made to investigate the proximate composition, amino acid and fatty acid content of the four different species of Azolla. Fresh Azolla samples were tested for proximate composition using the AOAC (2000) methodology. Amino acid and fatty acid compositions were determined using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (ion exchange principle) and Gas chromatography. The proximate composition analysis in four species of Azolla, namely A. microphylla, A. filiculoides, Wrong finger, and a TNAU hybrid are as follows: Moisture (91.77 - 92.25%), crude fat (0.6 - 1.8%), crude protein (3.9 - 5.2%), ash (2%), and carbohydrates (0.2 - 1%). The results of amino acid analysis indicated the presence of all amino acids except for cysteine which was either undetectable or present in small quantities. The range of essential amino acid percentages was 40.53 - 48.75% and that of non-essential was 51.25 - 57.92% in the four species. Total PUFA (%) was high among the total fatty acids detected with 64.12, 62.12, 52.13, and 35.66% in A. microphylla, A. filiculoides, the TNAU hybrid and Wrong finger, respectively while the MUFA (%) was 18.92, 17.50, 20.75, 24.86% and the saturated fatty acid content was 15.32, 18.60, 16.15 and 37.56% for the same species. The ω3: ω6 ratio was 1.46 - 2.34. Based on the results of this investigation, Azolla could be considered as a nutritive aquatic fern.
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