PART 11-CHFMinAL COMPOSITION 



By Charles F. Lee*"* 



INTRODUCTION 



This second section of a series of papers on starfish summarizes all published 

 and available information on the chemical composition of both fresh starfish and 

 starfish meal. The additional information obtained on this subject in the lab- 

 oratory of the Fish and Wildlife Service is given in detail. 



REVIEW OF LITERATURE ON STARFISH COMPOSITION 



There are relatively few reports on starfish containing analytical data and 

 those analyses available are, in most cases, not complete. In Table l.the con- 

 stituents have been calculated to a uniform basis to facilitate comparison. For 

 example, calcium or calcium oxide are reported as calcium carbonate. 



The data are seen to be rather fragmentary, but sufficient to show that star- 

 fish are not of constant composition with regard to any single constituent, even 

 when values are calculated on a dry matter basis. 

 Protein, ether extract (fat), and ash with its chief 

 constituent (calcium carbonate), all show a large 

 degree of variation. The data of Hutchinson, et 

 al, (1946) are from an analysis of a small laboratory 

 sample dried at 57° C. (134.6° F.). These values 

 are referred to in several other papers as the com- 

 position of the sun-dried meal which was supplied 

 by the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory group to 

 other laboratories for cooperative studies. That 

 this inference was entirely justifiable is doubtful, 

 as indicated by the check analysis of this same meal 

 reported by Whitson and Titus (1946). Loss of about 

 10 percent of the protein originally present in the 

 fresh starfish apparently occurred during preparation 

 of the sun-dried meal. 



The data of Morse, et al, (1944), also reported in this group of papers, were 

 obtained on a commercially dried experimental batch of four tons of starfish, al- 

 though the results of their laboratory sample analysis is comparable to data of 

 Hutchinson, et al. A difference equal to 22 percent more protein and 30 percent 

 less ash in the laboratory meal than in the commercial sample is indicated by 

 comparison of these data. 



Vachon (1920) emphasizes even more clearly the probable difference between 

 a commercial starfish meal, and a specially prepared sample in the two analyses 

 he reports, one of the material as collected, with seaweed, shells, sand, and other 

 adhering matter as would be used in the practical preparation of large quantities 

 of starfish meal, and the other, the analysis of starfish washed several times 

 and separated from all foreign matter. The value reported for protein in this 

 latter analysis appears to be erron eous . 

 *Chemical Engineer, Fishery Technological Laboratory, Division of Commercial Fisheries, 



College Park, Maryland. 

 NOTE: Part I of this series appeared in the January 194^ issue of Commercial Fisheries He- 

 view , pp. 1-6. Also Separate No. 193. 



