Nutrient Composition of Raw and Cooked Meat of Male Southern King Crab (Lithodes santolla Molina, 1782)

Abstract

This study provides information about nutrient composition of adult males of southern king crab (Lithodes santolla). Proximate composition of raw and cooked meat (g/100 g meat) averaged: moisture = 80.9 and 78.6, protein = 14.6 and 16.3, fat = 0.70 and 0.76, and ash = 2.03 and 2.10, respectively. Arginine, glutamic acid, leucine, and aspartic acid (20.4, 9.4, 8.0, and 7.9 g aa/100 g protein, respectively) were the major amino acids. The predominant fatty acid was 18:1n-9c (21.8 and 22.1%), followed by 20:5n-3 (17.1 and 21.8%), 16:0 (15.8 and 15.3%), and 22:6n-3 (11.0 and 13.5%). Cooked meat contained more cholesterol (51.0 mg/100 g meat) and phospholipids (60.1 mg/100 g meat) than raw meat (37.3 and 13.9 mg/100 g meat, respectively), with phosphatidylcholine representing over 80% of the total phospholipid content. The main tocopherol was α-tocopherol (raw meat = 1.30 mg/100 g meat, cooked meat = 1.14 mg/100 g meat). Major mineral contents of raw and cooked meat (mg/100 g meat) were: Na = 509 and 594, K = 179 and 203, Ca = 114 and 197, P = 126 and 143, Mg = 34 and 41, Fe = 1.26 and 1.86, and Zn = 1.88 and 2.64, respectively. Thus, the nutritional quality of the cooked meat of the southern king crab makes it especially adequate for cholesterol-restricted, balanced low-fat meat diets.

Keywords:

• southern king crab
• chemical composition
• fatty acids
• amino acids
• minor compounds
• phospholipids
• minerals
• cholesterol

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Mr. Pedro Forbito for his experimental backing. This work was financially supported by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), and Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco (UNPSJB), Argentina.