Medicinal value of earthworm

MEDICINAL VALUE OF EARTHWORM

       It is a time-honored, traditional custom to use live earthworm as angling bait, fish feed and duck feed. However, only within last 30 years has earthworm culture spread throughout the world as an excellent protein source replacing fish meal and soybean meal on a commercial scale since the potential for use of some earthworms in accelerating waste decomposition and protein production on a large scale was reported. It has been a well-known fact that earthworms can be used in the stabilization of organic wastes. Not only in the laboratory but also in practice has it been demonstrated that Eisenia fetida, the species most intensively studied in this respect, grows and reproduces well in many kinds of waste, converting them into live protein-rich feed and dark odorless casts with good physical structure for organic fertilizer.

Locally in China, people have been using earthworms as a food for several centuries. In ancient times, people in Fujian and Guangdong provinces of China had the habit of eating earthworms. Even now, in Taiwan and Henan and Guangdong provinces, some local people prepare special dishes featuring the earthworm as a basic ingredient. Records from Chinese ancient book “On Guo Yi Gong” say that the people who lived in Fujian, who were considered different from other people, considered earthworms to be a delicacy. They cut the earthworms in small pieces and mixed them with meat filling to make their food tastier. Even now, earthworm soup, a traditional delicacy, is still offered in some restaurants of Guangdong province.

Earthworms are also consumed by Ye’kuana Amerindians of the Alto Orinoco of Venezuela (Paoletti et al., 2002, private communication). In recent years, some countries in Western Europe and the Southern East have produced various earthworm products such as canned earthworms, mushroom-earthworms and earthworm biscuits and bread. In California, a company composed of several earthworm farms in Northern America held an exhibition and competition on earthworm food in 1975. In some African and South American countries, earthworms are commonly eaten. Owing to the high content and good quality of earthworm protein, the high content of vitamin B and other bioactive substances, it is very likely that earthworms could become an important source of animal protein in human nutrition if other sources become limited.