Amino acid composition and nutritive value of the alga Spirulina maxima

Spirulina maxima is an alga, rich in organic nitrogenous constituents, used for food in the Chad Republic. Amino acids, vitamins, and nutritive value were determined for a strain of the algae grown in an open‐air pilot production unit. The dried alga, more than 60% of which was proteinaceous material, contained all the essential amino acids in fairly good concentration except that the amount of the sulphur amino acids was low. Nutrition experiments on rats showed that the biological value of the alga was acceptable and was correlated with the chemical score (protein index). Dried Spirulina maxima also contained several vitamins, particularly β‐carotene (pro‐vitamin A).