A study on Nutritional analysis of commercially important marine brachyuran crabs of Gujarat state, India

In the present study, three commercially important species of brachyuran crabs viz., Portunus (Portunus) segnis (Forskal, 1775), Charybdis (Charybdis) feriatus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Portunus (Portunus) sanguinolentus (Herbst, 1783) were analysed to know their nutritive value.  Thus, biochemical components like moisture, protein, carbohydrate and total lipid content were measured in body and claw muscles of the crab specimens using standard protocols. The results showed variations in moisture, protein, carbohydrates and total lipid content of the body and claw muscles of these three commercially important brachyuran crab species. The higher values of moisture (78.80 %) and protein (31.41 %) content were recorded for body muscle of P. segnis, while a higher value of carbohydrate content was recorded in claw muscle of P. segnis (4.95 %). In contrast, a higher value of lipid content was found in claw muscle of P. sanguinolentus (3.26 %). Protein content was recorded higher in both muscle tissues of all the species, as compared to the other biochemical components. In conclusion, this study revealed that P. segnis is highly nutritious, in comparison with other studied species of brachyuran crabs.