Arame: Nutrients, What Research Shows and Safety

Arame is a brown seaweed, Eisenia bicyclis (also written Ecklonia bicyclis), a kelp-type seaweed from the coasts of Japan. It is sold dried as thin dark strands and is soaked and cooked. People eat it as a sea vegetable for its minerals and texture. This page keeps the whole food apart from extracts, and says plainly what the research does not show.

Read this first

• Arame is not hijiki. They are different seaweeds. In the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) survey, arame had no inorganic arsenic above the detection limit, while hijiki did, and the FSA suggested arame as an alternative. [1] [2] [3] Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety says seaweed other than hijiki is safe to eat with respect to arsenic. [9] See hijiki.
• Iodine can be high and varies. One recent study measured about 79 mg of iodine per kg of dried arame (one sample), much lower than kombu (about 3,126 mg per kg) and higher than nori (about 37 mg per kg) in the same study. [4] Other arame samples may differ a lot. Too much iodine can disturb the thyroid. [8] [10]
• Total arsenic is not small, but most of it is the organic kind. The same study found 7.0 mg per kg of total arsenic in arame. It did not measure inorganic arsenic. [4]
• Thyroid disease, pregnancy, young children: ask your clinician before eating seaweed often. [8] [10]
• Allergy: seaweed allergy is rare. For trouble breathing or swelling of the face or throat, call 911 (or your local emergency number). [11]
• Evidence in one line: arame's nutrient and contaminant levels are measured. Health benefit claims for arame come from cell and animal studies, not from trials in people that we found.

What is in it (no USDA entry)

No USDA entry for this food: USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy) has no listing for arame. The only composition numbers we read are from a 2026 Italian study of one purchased sample of dried arame from Japan, ground to powder. [4] They are per kg dry weight in the paper; we convert to per 100 g of dried arame. A dry 100 g is far more than anyone eats, so the Daily Value column is only a way to compare, not a serving. Values vary with harvest place, season and processing, and one sample is not an average.

Contaminants in the same sample, per kg dry weight: cadmium 0.25 mg, lead 0.82 mg, total arsenic 7.03 mg, mercury 0.02 mg. [4] The authors compared these with limits set by the French seaweed institute CEVA (cadmium 0.5, lead 5, mercury 0.1, inorganic arsenic 3 mg per kg, iodine 2,000). Arame was under those limits for cadmium, lead, mercury and iodine; its total arsenic was above the 3 mg inorganic arsenic limit, but the authors note most seaweed arsenic is organic, so inorganic arsenic must be measured to judge the risk. [4] Mineral numbers on this table are our unit conversion of the paper's figures.

Plant compounds: titles of laboratory papers on E. bicyclis extracts mention polysaccharides and a compound called dieckol. We read titles only, and they are about cells, animals and extraction methods. [12] We found no human study of these compounds from eating arame.

What research says

Eaten as food versus taken as extract: the lab studies above used extracts, not cooked arame. A review of seaweed risks and benefits says human trials are needed before health claims. [13]

How much is a normal serving

We found no official serving size for arame in the sources we read, and we give no dose advice. As arithmetic on the one sample in the study (about 79 mcg iodine per gram of dried arame), a few grams of dry arame could supply a large share of the EU adult upper level of 600 mcg a day (EFSA, quoted in a Korean assessment). [4] [6] That is information, not a prescription, and other samples will differ.

Safety, allergy and medicines

• Iodine: adult upper levels in the sources we read are 1,100 mcg a day (US, quoted in a 2004 Thyroid paper) and 600 mcg (EFSA). [5] [6] Iodine intake above the upper level was seen in habitual seaweed eaters in Norway. [8] NHS says taking high doses of iodine for long periods could change how the thyroid works. [10] EFSA 2023 found that for consumers of kombu and laver, mean iodine from seaweed exceeded 20 mcg per kg body weight a day; arame was not named. [7]
• Metals: cadmium in the arame sample was under the CEVA limit; lead was the highest of the six seaweeds tested but far under its limit. [4] Hong Kong and the UK single out hijiki, not arame, for inorganic arsenic. [1] [9]
• Organic arsenic: EFSA 2024 judged arsenobetaine and a common arsenosugar unlikely to raise a health concern at current exposures. [14]
• Allergy: anaphylaxis signs include trouble breathing, throat swelling and shock; call 911 right away and use prescribed epinephrine if you have it. [11]
• Pregnancy, children, thyroid disease, medicines, vitamin K, kidney disease: we did not find arame-specific figures. See seaweed in pregnancy and breastfeeding and seaweed, medicines and health conditions.

Choosing, storing and food safety

• Buy arame from a seller that says the species; do not confuse it with hijiki, which several governments advise avoiding. [1] [9]
• We did not read a source with storage advice for arame. See how to buy, prepare and store seaweed.

Related pages

• Hijiki
• Heavy metals in seaweed: arsenic, cadmium and the hijiki advice
• Iodine in seaweed: how much by type
• Kombu
• Seaweed, iodine and thyroid
• Heavy metals and contaminants in foods