Nutrient Composition and Fatty Acid Profiles of Oven-dried and Freeze-dried Earthworm Eisenia foetida

Busisiwe Gunya¹, Patrick Julius Masika^{1, 2,} , Arno Hugo³ and Voster Muchenje¹

¹Department of Livestock and Pasture Science, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice, 5700, South Africa

²Fort Cox College, P.O. Box 2187, King William’s Town, 5600, South Africa

³Department of Animal Science, University of Free State, P.O. Box339, Bloemfontein, 9300, South Africa

Cite this paper:
Busisiwe Gunya, Patrick Julius Masika, Arno Hugo and Voster Muchenje. Nutrient Composition and Fatty Acid Profiles of Oven-dried and Freeze-dried Earthworm Eisenia foetida. Journal of Food and Nutrition Research. 2016; 4(6):343-348. doi: 10.12691/jfnr-4-6-1

Abstract

Background: Eisenia foetida are used as a feed source. However, information on nutrient composition and fatty acid profiles of earthworm E.foetida is limited, making it complex to include them into feed formulation. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the nutritive value of freeze-dried and oven-dried earthworms, E. foetida. Design: The earthworms were oven- or freeze-dried, then analysed for nutrient composition (protein, fat, moisture and minerals) according to AOAC method and fatty acids using gas chromatography. Results: Protein content was higher in freeze-dried earthworms while fat content of earthworms was not influenced by drying methods used. Most minerals (macro and micro) of E. foetida were significantly different except for calcium (P < 0.05) with freeze-dried E. foetida having the predominant minerals than oven-dried earthworms. Most of essential fatty acids were significantly higher in oven-dried E. foetida than in freeze-dried earthworms. No significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed on Margaric, Vaccenic, Arachidic, Tricosanoic, omega-3, SFA, MUFA, n-3, PUFA: SFA and PUFA/MUFA between oven-dried and freeze-dried samples. Conclusions: The study revealed that freeze-dried E. foetida can serve as a better source of nutrients than oven-dried earthworms whereas fatty acids were better in oven-dried E. foetida than freeze-dried E. foetida. These results indicated that the effects of drying methods on E. foetida nutritive value were different.

Keywords:
chemical composition drying methods Eisenia foetida fatty acids

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