Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Research Article

Biochemical Composition of Selected Macrophytes of Dal Lake, Kashmir Himalaya

Zahoor Ahmad Rather^1* and Ruqeya Nazir²

¹Department of Environmental Science, University of Kashmir-190006, India

²Center of Research for Development University of Kashmir, India

*Corresponding Author:

Zahoor Ahmad Rather
Department of Environmental Science
University of Kashmir, India
Tel: +91 (194) 227 2096
Fax: +91 (194) 2272096
E-mail: zahoorenvsc@gmail.com

Received Date: May 20, 2015; Accepted Date: June 04, 2015; Published Date: June 06, 2015

Citation: Rather ZA, Nazir R (2015) Biochemical Composition of Selected Macrophytes of Dal Lake, Kashmir Himalaya. J Ecosys Ecograph 5:158. doi:10.4172/2157-7625.1000158

Copyright: © 2015 Rather ZA, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The biochemical composition (total lipids, carbohydrate content and total protein content) of six macrophytes belonging to different life-form classes was investigated in the present study. In general, the concentration of total lipids, carbohydrates and total protein varied from1.30% of fresh weight to 5.87% of fresh weight, 10.24% of fresh weight to 19.13% of fresh weight and 0.94% of fresh weight to 2.41% of fresh weight respectively with highest values during summer months coinciding with their peak growth season. The analysis of biochemical composition of the macrophytes indicated the presence of species specificity as well as spatial and temporal variations. The finding of the present study suggests that these macrophytes can be used as a potential source of food and fodder for humans and bovine animals and as fertilizers for agriculture fields and flowering gardens.

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