Action of the Digestive Juice of the Snail Limicolaria Flammea on Raw Starches.

This study reports the action of digestive juice of snail Limicalaria flammea on raw starches. This juice exhibited maximum activity at pH 4.0-5.5 and was optimally active at 40-50 °C. About 82.5 % of the original amylasic activity still remained after treatment at 50 °C for 16 h. The digestive juice had a strong digesting ability towards various raw starches and efficiently hydrolyzed raw corn starch at a concentration of 1.0% and pH 5 at 40 °C in a period of 12 h. The rate of hydrolysis of the raw corn and cassava starches were 64.37 % and 42.0 % respectively while that of palmyrah palm was 29.05 %. The analysis of the hydrolyzed products of the raw starches by thin layer chromatography showed the glucose, maltosaccharide and dextrin after 12 h of hydrolysis.

Comparative Study of Thiaminase in Headfoot and Hepatopancreas of Limicolaria flammea (Müller, 1774).

This study aimed at determining the level of thiaminase in the Limicolaria flammea with a view to ascertaining the nutritional and health implications of its consumption. Methodology: Proximate analyses of two tissues, headfoot and hepatopancreas, were investigated to assess their nutritional qualities. The thiaminases in the tissues were purified by chromatographic separations using DEAE-Sephacel ion - exchange and Biogel P-100 columns. Results: The Michealis Menten constant obtained for hepatopancreas thiaminase was 0.83 mM and 0.13 mM for thiamine and aniline respectively; for the headfoot thiaminase, 1.06 mM and 0.16 mM was obtained for thiamine and aniline respectively. An optimum pH of 8.5 was obtained for thiaminase in the two tissues. Temperature optimum of 65°C and 70°C was obtained for the headfoot and hepatopancreas enzymes respectively. The amino acids and glutathione activated the enzyme from hepatopancreas, while the headfoot enzyme was significantly inhibited except proline which showed very high activation. The cations: NH4 +, Hg2+, Mn2+, Na+, Ni2+, and Zn2+ tested showed no inhibition of the enzymes in both tissues. Increased concentrations of 2-mercaptoethanol, 6-amino hexanoic acid and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) inhibited the activities of thiaminases from the two tissues. Conclusion: The study concluded that the tissues, hepatopancreas and headfoot of Limicolaria flammea contained high level of thiaminase. This may have medical implication in its consumption as a good source of high quality protein.