Comparison of Body Characteristics, Carotenoid Composition, and Nutritional Quality of Chinese Mitten Crab ( Eriocheir sinensis ) with Different Hepatopancreas Redness

• Published in: Foods 2024-04, Vol.13 (7), p.993
• Main Authors: Guo, Honghui, Zhang, Jingang, Wu, Yidi, Luo, Xiangzhong, Xu, Zhiqiang, Pan, Jianlin, Zou, Guiwei, Liang, Hongwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abdomen; Amino acid composition; Amino acids; Analysis; arginine; Astaxanthin; canthaxanthin; Carotene; Carotenoids; Composition; Consumers; crabs; Crustaceans; Decapoda; DHA; Eriocheir sinensis; fatty acid composition; Fatty acids; Females; Hepatopancreas; hepatopancreas chroma; Leucine; Lipids; Males; Muscles; Nutritive value; Ovaries; paraffin section; Polyunsaturated fatty acids; Protein composition; sugars; t-test; Umami; Unsaturated fatty acids; Zeaxanthin; β-Carotene
• ISSN: 2304-8158; 2304-8158
• DOI: 10.3390/foods13070993

In this study, we investigated the body characteristics, carotenoid composition, and nutritional quality of with different hepatopancreas redness ( ). We distributed the crabs into two groups based on the hepatopancreas values and compared their body characteristics, chroma, carotenoid composition, and protein, lipid, total sugar, amino acid, and fatty acid content via paired -test. The results revealed that the relationships between hepatopancreas values and crab quality are sex specific. In female crabs, the differences in nutritional characteristics were evident mainly in the hepatopancreases and ovaries. In the redder hepatopancreases, the content of zeaxanthin and β-carotene increased, and the levels of C22:6n3 and C20:5n3 decreased ( < 0.05). In the ovaries, the content of astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, β-carotene, umami, and sweet amino acids were lower in the redder hepatopancreas crabs ( < 0.05). In male crabs, there were positive relationships between hepatopancreas and amino acid and fatty acid content. The content of leucine, arginine, and total umami amino acids in muscles and of unsaturated fatty acids and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in hepatopancreases and testicles increased with increasing hepatopancreas values ( < 0.05). Therefore, the redder the hepatopancreas, the higher the nutritional quality of male crabs.