Soldier crab (Mictyris brevidactylus), a resource of nutritional food material

Abstract

The chemical composition and nutritional quality in the meat of soldier crab (Mictyris brevidactylus) were analysed and evaluated. Soldier crab was rich in phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, and also was a good mineral source of copper, iron and zinc. The major fatty acids were docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3), eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3) and palmitic acid (16:0). Crab meat was an n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)-rich food, as the ratio of n-3/n-6 PUFAs was 3.10. Glutamic acid (204 mg/g of protein) was the dominant amino acid in soldier crab protein, followed by glycine (162 mg/g), aspartic acid (100 mg/g), lysine (87 mg/g), leucine (84 mg/g) and alanine (82 mg/g), and the contents of methionine, histidine, serine and cysteine were low. Tryptophan and methionine were the first and second limiting amino acid, respectively, in soldier crab. The ratio of essential to non-essential amino acids was 0.58. The results indicated that soldier crab could be an ideal resource of nutritional food material with a desirable chemical composition.