Journal of Aquaculture Development and Environment Volume 5 No.1 Juli 2022 314 SEAWEED AS A DIETARY FIBER TO PREVENT THE CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE Andri Nofreeana 1 *, Muh. Azril 1 1 Faculty of Agriculture, Aquaculture Study Program, Universitas Tidar Magelang *Email: andrinofreeana@untidar.ac.id Abstract Indonesia has a lot of potential in natural resources, one of which is seaweed. Seaweed is one of the natural ingredients that contain water-soluble dietary fiber. The fiber content in seaweed can be categorized as a functional food. The fiber content in seaweed varies, from 36-60% dry weight, 55-70% of the former percentage is soluble fiber consisting of alginate and carrageenan with varying amounts depending on the type of seaweed and environmental conditions. The dietary fibers are useful for disease prevention and health maintenance. Dietary fiber can prevent several diseases, including coronary heart disease (cardiovascular). The effect of dietary fiber according to Liu et al (2002) is a very high fiber diet (55 g/1,000 kcal) which resulted in a 33% reduction in LDL cholesterol (Low-Density Lipoprotein) in two weeks period. The mechanism of dietary fiber reduces cardiovascular disease since it is able to bind bile acids (the end product of cholesterol), thereby preventing its reabsorption from the intestine. Cholesterol that is bound to bile acids and lignin/pectin cannot be absorbed by the intestines but will be excreted in the feces. Keywords: seaweed, dietary fiber, cardiovascular, cholesterol Introduction Seaweed that is mostly produced by Indonesia is Gracilaria as the raw material for agar and Eucheuma cottonii for carrageenan. These species are cultivated mainly in the Riau Islands, Lampung, Kepulauan Seribu, Bali, Lombok, Flores, Sumba and Sulawesi. The utilization of seaweed can produce 500 types of commercial products, including carrageenan, which is the raw material for cosmetics, perfumes, medicines, and toothpaste. Indonesia currently ranks fourth after Chile, Morocco and the Philippines as the world's main producers of seaweed (Bureau of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, 2008). The potential of seaweed resources must be followed by adequate seaweed quality control since this will affect the quality of seaweed raw materials. According to (Eniati, 2016), the low quality of Indonesian seaweed is caused by the absence of special standards applied at the farmer level. Starting from the planting process to post-harvest control, causing the low quality of the seaweed raw materials produced. The quality of seaweed raw materials will affect the bioactive content. Likewise, the quality of seaweed raw materials that are controlled well in the process can become a functional food product. The development of seaweed-based functional food products will able to provide broad access for the community to the provision of healthy food (functional food) at affordable prices. Seaweed is one of the natural ingredients that contain water-soluble dietary fiber. Astawan et al. (2006) suggested that Eucheuma cottonii type seaweed from Indonesian waters contains soluble fiber up to 23.89% and insoluble dietary fiber of 55.05%. The fiber content in seaweed varies, namely 36- 60% in dry weight, of which 55-70% is soluble fiber consisting of alginate and carrageenan with varying amounts depending on the type of seaweed and environmental conditions. Furthermore, fucoidans, laminarin, porphyrin, and Ulvan are also soluble fibers that are widely found in several types of seaweed (Rajapakse and Kim, 2011).