Biochemical and nutritional composition of garden snail (Limicolaria flammea) flesh consumed in Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract

Investigations about biochemical composition and nutritional value of snail meat are few. Research was conducted on flesh flour from snail (Limicolaria flammea) collected in Agboville (South, Côte d'Ivoire). The proximate composition showed that snail (Limicolaria flammea)  flesh flour was rich in protein (46.65±0.05 %) and low in fat (8.64±0.6 %),  total carbohydrate  (8.20±0.01 %) , total sugars (7.8±0.25 %) reducing sugars (7.23±0.04 %) and  ash (6.23±0.01 %). The major minerals were phosphorus (3365.33±0.33 mg/Kg), calcium (1654.54±0.06 mg/Kg) potassium (1324.54± 4.18 mg/Kg) and sodium (668.69±1.13 mg/Kg).  The major vitamins were vitamin B₉ (21.56±0.17 µg/100g), vitamin C (18.34±1.30 µg/100g) and vitamin E (18.12±2.1 µg/100g). The chromatographic profile of amino acids revealed fifteen amino acids of which five are the dominant ones. Those are lysine (2.38±0.01 mg/100g), valine (1.45±0.02 mg/100g), methionine (1.26±0.03 mg/100g), isoleucine (1.24±0.01 mg/100g), leucine (1.05±0.01 mg/100g), the others have contents lower than 1mg /100g. Oxalate and phytate anti-nutritional parameters are non-existent in flour and tannins content was 0.18±0.01 mg/100g.