Nutritional Characteristics of Curry fish Sea Cucumber (Stichopus vastus) using Chemicals and Physical Treatment

Abstract

Indonesia is one of the main sources of sea cucumber in the world with high total production for domestic consumption and export market. Sea cucumber has potential as a source of traditional foods, medicine, and functional food due to the high nutritional component in sea cucumbers. The purpose of this research was to determine the different nutritional characteristics of sea cucumber obtained by chemical (ethanol extractions of 20%, 25%, and 30%) and physical treatment (boiling and steaming). The results showed that chemical treatment (30% ethanol) had the best nutritional components being composed of protein 77.35%; moisture 9.14%; ash 6.67%; fat 0.10%; and carbohydrate 6.18%, while in physical treatment, steaming had the best nutritional components in composed of 61.49% protein content, 11.53% moisture, 10.76% ash, 2.22% fat, and 14.00% carbohydrate. Amino acid profiles in chemical treatments (ethanol 20%, 25%, and 30%) were 53.60%, 56.74%, and 61.65% respectively, while the amino acid profiles in physical treatments (boiling and steaming) were 50.31% and 52.96%, respectively. Glycine and glutamate acid, non-essential amino acid, were dominated by both chemical and physical treatments.