Comparison between Natural and Cabinet Drying on Weight Loss of Seaweed Euchuema cottonii Weber-van Bosse

In Indonesia, seaweed has a critical role in improving the welfare of coastal communities. As asource of nutrition, seaweed consists of carbohydrate, protein, fat, fiber and ash, vitamin, and beta-carotene.Right drying methods are needed to preserve the quality of dried seaweed. This study aims to compare thetrend of weight reduction in seaweed during drying by natural and cabinet methods. The methods wereused experimentally in the field and laboratory. And the data were analyzed using simple linear regressionto formulate a trend of reduction in the weight of seaweed while drying. The results showed that the weightreduction in seaweed by the natural method can be illustrated by the simple regression linear equation Y =-2.385 3x + 943.65 with R² = 0.985 9, which means a reduction in weight of seaweed i.e. 2.385 3 g min–1during 340 min. While cabinet dryer method can be illustrated by Y = -0.858 8x + 913.55 with R² = 0.9315, which means a reduction in seaweed weight i.e, 0.858 8 g min–1 during 340 min. The reduction of seaweedweight per minute by the natural drying method is higher than the cabinet drying method. Still, the cabinetdrying method is more stable because it does not depend on the weather during the drying process