The Supplementary Value of Algae Protein in Human Diets

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Abstract
Nutritive value of algae protein for maintaining nitrogen balance in human adults fed 6 g N/day from algae alone or algae combined with other intact proteins was determined during 10 experimental periods of 5 days each. The protein sources studied were: algae (Chlorella pyrenoidosa), fish flour, soybean flour, dried whole egg, rice and gelatin. All diets supported positive nitrogen balance (mean values ranging from +0.30 to +0.77 g N/day), except the diets containing algae alone or algae and gelatin (mean values, -0.06 and -0.38 g N/day, respectively). While the intact proteins of fish, soybean and egg fed singly resulted in nitrogen retentions of similar magnitude, only fish protein appeared to be improved slightly by supplementing with 2 or 4 g nitrogen from algae. Nitrogen retention in response to the algae-rice combination was comparable to that observed when the high quality proteins, fish, soybean and egg were fed. Apparent nitrogen digestibility for the 6 g algae nitrogen diet was improved from 66% to 71 to 75% when part of the algae was replaced by other proteins. The latter values compared favorably with digestibilities of the single intact proteins.

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