Free amino acid composition of a coralline-eating herbivore Niveotectura pallida

Abstract

Niveotectura  pallida (GOULD) is a coralline-eating limpet (Mollusca, Patellogastropoda) which is dominant on the urchin barrens along the coasts of southwestern Hokkaido and northeastern Honshu. This limpet is sometimes eaten by the local residents along the coast; the empty shell was also from shell mounds. As no information about the extractive components was available for N. pallida so far, compositions of free amino acids and ATP related compounds of the sole meat were examined using samples collected from Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture on the Pacific coast. As the results, little difference was found in general components of the sole meats between N. pallida and an abalone Haliotis madaka; protein accounted for ca 17-18 % of the sole weight in both species. As free amino acids, the sole meat of N. pallida contained arginine and phenylalanine, glycine, alanine and serine and glutamic acid, beside a large amount of taurine. Among the ATP related substances, AMP and ADP accounted for ca 70 %, but the total amount was nearly the half in Haliotis madaka. These features might explain the thin taste of sole meat of N. pallida, which may recommend us the forced or seasoned tasting in its cooking.