Nutrient Composition of Three Species of Crayfish

Crayfish are also flavourful with nutritive content and valuable as human food (similar to lobster); they are sold in fish markets all over the world. The study investigated nutrient composition of white crayfish, (Procambaruszonangulus), brown crayfish (Procambarusclarkii), and prawn crayfish (Macrobrachiumrosenbergii). P.zonangulus, P.clarkii, and M.rosenbergii was collected from the market in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State. Proximate analysis and mineral composition was analysed forP.zonangulus, P.clarkii, and M.rosenbergiiUsing conventional analytical techniques.The results of the proximate compositionrevealed moisture content (14.76±0.06, 13.51±0.11 and 12.79±0.10), ash content (14.38±0.04, 14.66±0.06 and 18.84±0.04), crude fat (7.71±0.05, 8.23±0.05 and 5.17±0.03), crude fibre (1.97±0.01, 1.94±0.04 and 1.72±0.02), crude protein (48.62±0.03, 49.87±0.03and 27.82±0.48) and Carbohydrate (12.57±0.12, 11.79±0.05 and 11.16±0.13) in the P.zonangulus, P.clarkii, and M.rosenbergii respectively. The mineral composition of P.zonangulus, P.clarkii, and M.rosenbergiirevealed Calcium (92.52±0.02, 115.73±0.46 and 108.03±0.02), Magnesium (25.34±0.03, 40.23±0.01 and 30.62±0.01), Phosphorus (44.92±0.02, 43.05±0.02 and 48.24±0.02), Iron (37.85±0.65, 72.21±0.02 and 35.91±0.03), Chromium (0.18±0.005, 0.22±0.005 and 0.25±0.005), Lead (0.40±0.002, 0.65±0.001 and 0.35±0.001),Zinc (0.45±0.001, 0.35±0.001and 0.15±0.001) and Copper (0.17±0.005, 0.19±0.005 and 0.10±0.005) respectively. This study has, therefore, established the fact that whitecrayfish (P.zonangulus), brown crayfish (P.clarkii) and prawn crayfish (M.rosenbergii) contains highly beneficial contents which can be 6 exploited beneficially in healthcare services and nutritional supplement. It can be concluded that these three species crayfish contain higher concentration of protein needed for body growth and repairs of damaged cells.