Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: chinnl@upm.edu.my
  • 3 Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: yus.aniza@upm.edu.my
  • 4 Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, 43500 Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: chung-lim.law@nottingham.edu.my
  • 5 Laboratory of Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: tansheau@upm.edu.my
Food Res Int, 2018 07;109:35-43.
PMID: 29803459 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2018.03.078

Abstract

Edible bird's nest (EBN) is a precious food made from the solidified saliva of swiftlets. EBN from three types of origin, namely production, swiftlet species and geographical were characterised based on its nutritional composition, physicochemical properties and antioxidant properties. Proximate composition, total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activities were determined following official methods, while mineral and heavy metal contents were obtained by respective atomic adsorption spectrometry (AAS) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Amino acids profile and sialic acid were determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Calcium and sodium were the major elements in EBN samples at averages of 17,267 mg/kg and 13,681 mg/kg, respectively. Despite protein contents were not significantly different; interestingly the total amino acids in A. fuciphagus EBN, 64.57 g/100 g was found to be 23% higher than in A. maximus EBN. EBN from house, A. fuciphagus and Peninsular Malaysia had greater antioxidant activities, 2.33-3.49 mg AAE/g and higher sialic acid, 13.57 g/100 g while those from cave, A. maximus and East Malaysia contained more minerals like calcium and magnesium. The 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity and ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) of house, A. fuciphagus and Peninsular Malaysia EBNs were approximately 2 times greater than the others. All samples were complied with the Malaysian Standard MS 2334:2011, except for mercury and nitrite. The overall findings suggest that the quality of EBN was varied following the production, species and geographical origins.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.