Nutritional value of earthworm flour (Eisenia foetida) as a source of amino acids and its quantitative estimation through reversed phase Chromatography (HPLC) and pre-column derivation with o-phthalaldehyde (OPA)

Authors

  • R VIELMA-RONDÓN Dpto. de Ciencias de los Alimentos
  • JF OVALLES-DURÁN Dpto. de Análisis y Control. Facultad de Farmacia. Universidad de Los Andes. Mérida 2P 5101. República Bolivariana de Venezuela
  • A LEÓN-LEAL Dpto. de Análisis y Control. Facultad de Farmacia. Universidad de Los Andes. Mérida 2P 5101. República Bolivariana de Venezuela
  • A MEDINA Dpto. de Ciencias de los Alimentos

Keywords:

Earthworm, Eisenia foetida, Amino acids, HPLC, O-phthaldehyde (OPA)

Abstract

Earthworms (Eisenia foetida) are of nutritional interest since they are a rich source of protein (> 60% w/w). The aimof this work was to determine amino acid content in proteins from samples of earthworm flour. The amino acids wereseparated by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography and detected through molecular fluorescencesubsequent to derivatization with o-phthalaldehyde. The accuracy and precision of the method developed were satisfactory,and a linear response within the concentration range of 2 - 32 μM was observed. The earthworm flour was characterizedby evaluating the content of some essential amino acids, such as: phenylalanine, leucine, lysine, isoleucine, methionineand valine (> 3% w/w). The findings from this work are in agreement with those from earlier studies indicating thatthe analytical method described in this paper may be adopted for amino acid analysis of earthworm flour samples. Thisspecies could provide an answer to the nutritional and ecological problems of some developing countries

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Published

2002-12-20

How to Cite

1.
VIELMA-RONDÓN R, OVALLES-DURÁN J, LEÓN-LEAL A, MEDINA A. Nutritional value of earthworm flour (Eisenia foetida) as a source of amino acids and its quantitative estimation through reversed phase Chromatography (HPLC) and pre-column derivation with o-phthalaldehyde (OPA). Ars Pharm [Internet]. 2002 Dec. 20 [cited 2024 May 19];44(1):43-58. Available from: https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/ars/article/view/5124

Issue

Vol. 44 No. 1 (2003)

Section

Original Articles

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