Determination of Chemical Compositions of Snail-Eating Turtle (Malayemys macrocephala) Eggs

This study was designed to determine the chemical compositions and profiles of amino acid,fatty acid, vitamin, mineral and sex hormone contents of snail-eating turtle eggs. Average proximate analyses of weight, ash, moisture, carbohydrate, protein, fat and total calories of the snail-eating turtle whole eggs were 11.55 g egg-1, 1.45 g 100g-1, 72.93 g 100g-1, 4.64 g 100g-1, 12.42 g 100g-1, 8.56 g 100g-1, 145.17 kcal 100g-1 respectively. Most of these nutrients were higher in egg yolks than egg white except moisture. Most of non-essential fatty acid (NEFA) was oleic acid (2.65 mg 100g-1) while most of essential fatty acid (EFA) was arachidonic acid (0.47 mg 100g-1). Snail-eating turtle eggs contained high ash (1.45 g 100g-1) which was related to mineral content. Our results also revealed that whole eggs had high essential mineral of nitrogen and trace mineral of iron and zinc, which most of them were in egg white, In addition, it contained high vitamin A (retinol) and E in egg yolk. Most of sex hormones content, such as Luteinizing Hormone (LH), Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), Prolactin (PRL), Progesterone (P), Estradiol (E2) and Testosterone (T), were higher in egg yolk than in egg white, with the highest of progesterone. This study indicated that snail-eating turtle eggs contained high contents of some essential amino acid, such as arachidonic acid and linoleic acid, vitamin A, total minerals of nitrogen, iron and zinc and sex hormone progesterone.