Proceedings of the Fifteenth Sessions of the Sri Lanka Association for Fisheries and Aquatic resources, 

19th June, 2009, Auditorium of Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo‐07 

Effect of Processing on the chemical Composition of Holothurians available in

Sri Lanka
T.A.D.W. Karunarathna1, E.M.R.K.B. Edirisinghe2, B.K.K.K.Jinadasa2 and T.V.Sundarabarathi1
1
Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Applied Science, Rajarata University of Sri
Lanka, Mihinthale, Sri Lanka.
2
Post Harvest Technology Division, National Aquatic Resources and research Development
Agency (NARA), Crow Island, Colombo-15, Sri Lanka.

Holothurians (sea cucumbers) are traditionally consumed raw, dried and boiled in many tropical
and subtropical countries. However, the most important sea cucumber product is the dried body
wall that is marketed as beche-de-mer (trepan or hai-som). The local demand for sea cucumbers
available in Sri Lanka and its variation during processing have not studied sufficiently.

Present study compares the chemical compositions of fresh and processed sea cucumbers,
Actinipyga miliaris and Bohadschia similis harvested from Dutch bay, off Kalpitiya. Fresh sea
cucumbers were processed using different methods according to the size of the individual and
species. The evisceration is performed either by cutting the anus, followed by removal of the
viscera by firmly squeezing the body or by cutting along the length of the body, followed by
removal of the viscera. All of the sea cucumbers were boiled and dried in open sun. The
chemical composition, i.e. water, ash, protein and fat contents were measured prior to and after
processing.

According to the results, moisture, ash, fat, protein and carbohydrate contents of fresh body wall
were 74.90-89.80%, 2.89-14.32%, 0.16-0.86%, 3.67-14.05% and 0.38-6.03%, respectively. From
fresh sea cucumbers, Actinipyga miliaris recorded the 13.11%, and Bohadschia similis 45.9%
protein in processed samples.

The moisture content decreased to 17.81-31.1% during processing, but, fat and protein contents
increased 0.75-5.45% and 40.22-45.9% respectively of the two species. The level of ash also
increased 19.52-32.71%.