Occurrence of unusual fatty acids in the earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris

It has long been believed in Southeast Asia that the earthworm can be used as a depressant and an anticonvulsant, that it has antipyretic activity, and that it might be used as a remedy for chronic bronchitis and asthma.1} Hori et al.2) reported that some free fatty acid fractions of earthworm exhibited antipyretic activity in response to fever induced in rabbits vaccinated with a pyrogen. Several decades ago, it was reported that the fatty acids in the earthworm were palmitic acid (C16), stearic acid (C18) and cholesterin.3) Other studies showed that the crude lipid content was very high,4) and saturated fatty acids of C10-C22 and unsaturated fatty acids of C12-C22 were detected.5) When the lipids from the Korean edible earthworm were re-analyzed by a conventional HPLCmethod,6) we detected high amounts of fatty acids, corresponding to branched-chain fatty acids and odd-numbered fatty acids, compared with the results described above. In the present study, capillary GC and GC/MSwere used to determine quantitatively the compositions of these fatty acids from the earthworm. Edible earthworms (Lumbricus terrestris), cultured by