2. Materials and methods
2.1. Animals
Live wild sandworms (average weight 2.73 g/worm) were obtained from Bangphra beach, Chonburi province, Thailand,
in August 2006 and starved for 2 days before putting them on ice and freezing at −70 ◦C. Four-month-old farmed sandworms
were obtained from a commercial sandworm farm in Samutsongkram province (average weight 0.73 g/worm). The farmed
sandworms were fed with commercial shrimp diet (containing protein 380 g/kg, fat 50 g/kg and fiber 40 g/kg). Upon arrival,
farmed sandworms were starved for 2 days to clear the digestive tract before putting them on ice and then frozen at
−70 ◦C
until used 2.2. Proximate composition analysis
Both groups of sandworm were freeze-dried and analyzed in triplicate for proximate composition. Moisture, protein,
fat and ash contents were determined according to standard AOAC (1990) procedures. Briefly, the moisture content was
determined by constant weight drying in oven at 100 ◦C. Protein levels were determined by a modified Kjeldahl method.
The fat content was determined by the Bligh and Dryer method with chloroform and methanol (Bligh and Dyer, 1959), and
the ash content was determined using a muffle furnace at 550 ◦C to constant weight. The energy content was estimated
according to FAO (2003) and calculated as: protein = 17.75 kJ/g and lipid = 37.76 kJ/g.