Earthworms: A Source of Protein

Abstract

Earthworms are important invertebrates that have been widely used as food and traditional medicine sources for thousands of years. Not only have researchers proven that earthworms are rich in proteins and other nutrients, they have also taken a keener interest in their unique pharmaceutical properties. Recent research has successfully discovered some beneficial functional components of earthworms due to the rapid development of biological technologies in the past decades. Therefore, earthworms could be a novel dietary supplement for human consumption. This review aims to summarize the current research about nutritional and therapeutic values of earthworms; and present a matured earthworm-derived product from Bocom Pharmaceuticals (USA) Corp as an example of its incorporation into a dietary supplement.