The nutritional quality of drum-dried algae produced in open door mass culture.

The yield of three large scale cultures of Scenedesmus acutus, Chlorella vulgaris, and Coelastrum proboscideum was drum dried. The amino acid composition of the three species proved to compare well with the FAO (11) amino acid pattern except for methionine and isoleucine. Bio-assay evaluation of the three algal proteins gave the following values: protein efficiency ratio, 1.9-2.1; net protein ratio, 2,4-2.8; biological value, 75-78; digestibility coefficient 88-89; and calculated net protein utilization 67-69. Total nucleic acid content was about 4%. Uric acid content in the plasma of rats fed Scenedesmus, Chlorella, and Coelastrum diets was significantly higher (P less than 0.05) than in plasma of rats fed on a casein diet.