Nutritive Evaluation of Earthworms as Human Food

Abstract

Earthworms have been a traditional medicine in China for at least 2300 years. Because of medicine food homology in China, people have been using earthworms as a food for several centuries. Earthworms are rich in protein and various amino acids; the protein content of earthworm meal was 54.6-59.4% on dry weight. Their protein content and amino acid composition are beter than those of ish meal, cow milk and soybean meal. The crude fat content of earthworm meal was 7.34%. Earthworm protein is easily hydrolyzed into free amino acids. The hydrolyzed body luids contain 9.34% protein and 78.73 mg of free amino acids per liter of raw luid and are rich in vitamins and minerals. By the fast development of molecular biological techniques, more Verm pharmaceuticals and functional components were isolated from earthworms. An antibacterial peptide and a functional earthworm powder were introduced in this paper. In short, based on its nutrient content and functional components, earthworms could be an excellent raw material source as homology of medicine and food for human use, especially as functional food in the future.

From a Food Safety Prospective: The Role of Earthworms as Food and Feed in Assuring Food Security and in Valuing Food Waste

“…Then, the earthworm meal was defatted to obtain a meal rich in protein and other nutrients and to decrease perishability. The results showed that earthworm grown on FVW presented a high protein content, from 62.3% on DM before the defatting process to about 73% on DM in the sterilized defatted sample, similar to percentages reported in other studies [14,[16][17][18][19][20]. Moreover, iron and iodine minerals are also well represented.…”

“…Several authors [14,15] have underlined the nutritional value of earthworms based on their nutrient content: earthworms of Eisenia foetida species are an excellent source of biologically valuable protein, micronutrients, minerals, and vitamins in the human diet. E. foetida meal has a high protein content in the range of 54.6% to 71% dry matter [14,[16][17][18][19][20] and is rich in amino acids considered essential for humans [17]. Earthworms are also rich in fat, with content ranging from 7.3% to 10% of dry matter [17,20].…”

“…E. foetida meal has a high protein content in the range of 54.6% to 71% dry matter [14,[16][17][18][19][20] and is rich in amino acids considered essential for humans [17]. Earthworms are also rich in fat, with content ranging from 7.3% to 10% of dry matter [17,20]. As reported in Reg.…”

Earthworms: A Source of Protein

“…For example, P'ing-Chou k'o-t'an, a special dish from Hainan Island, is earthworm cooked with pieces of bamboo. Nowadays, some people in Fujian, Guangdong, and Taiwan still consume earthworm in their diet [6]. In Japan, making earthworm pie has been recorded as a custom [7].…”

“…In China, not only was earthworm listed in well-known ancient medicinal books, such as Shennong Ben Cao Jing or Ben Cao Gang Mu, it was also covered and described in contemporary publications like Pharmacopoeia of People's Republic of China [6,29]. A clinical study showed that gyanyankan (a Chinese medicine mixture including earthworms) was effective in treating patients' mild hypertension [30,31].…”