Proximate Nutrient Content Analysis of Some Aquatic Weeds of Dal Lake Srinagar

Author(s): Subzar Ahmad Ganie*, Mir Sajad Rabani, Manzoor Ahmad Mir and Imtiaz A Khan

Abstract: The current study was carried out in Dal lake Kashmir, one of the famous and largest water bodies of Srinagar city. The aquatic weeds including Nelumbo nucifera, Lemna minor, Azolla sp., Salvinia natans, Trapa natans, Potamogetton crispus, Potamogetton lucens, Hydrilla verticillata, Ceratophyllum demersum, Myriophyllum spicatum and Myriophyllum verticillatum were selected to evaluate the proximate nutritional potential. The moisture content of aquatic weeds was found to be in the range of 83-96% and ash content was found to be in the range of 8-28%. The highest moisture content was found in case of Salvinia natans (96.58±0.46) while the lowest moisture content was recorded in case of Myriophyllum spiciatum (83.70±1.50). Highest values for ash content was observed in Myriophyllum verticillatum (28.830±1.23) and Nelumbo nucifera showed the lowest (8.93±1.23). Highest value for lipids was obtained from Ceratophyllum demersum (6.04±0.15) while Salvinia natans gave the lowest value of 0.88±0.25). The crude protein and crude fibre values were observed highest in case of Azolla sp. (23.23±0.52) and Potamogeton crispus (23.15±0.18) respectively while the lowest values were seen in Myriophyllum spiciatum (10.13±0.26) and Nelumbo nucifera (1.69±0.18) respectively. In current study, the nutritional potential of the selected aquatic macrophytes harvested from Dal lake was evaluated through proximate compositions and analyzed in percentage. Therefore, this study suggests that these plants could be used as a good source of protein and other nutrients for incorporation in animal diet. Exploiting these macrophytes may be of great economic importance and a step to harvest these plants for feed production and better utilization in medicinal uses. Moreover, this could be also helpful in solving the problems attributed with weed eradication.

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