DETERMINATION OF NUTRITIONAL CONTENT IN FRESH WATER PRAWNS COLLECTED FROM FRIDAY FISH MARKET, AMRAVATI

Fresh water prawns are consumed at a high rate in Amravati district of Maharashtra mainly for their nutritional purposes (chiefly proteins) carbohydrates and lipids. The aim of this study is to evaluate the nutritional content of different prawn species and their fries (juvenile prawns) available in a frozen state from the Friday Fish market Amravati. Protein content was estimated by the Lowry’s Method (Lowery 1951). This study showed higher protein content (73.24±0.3538%) in the juvenile prawns as compared to their adult life stages (54.65±0.2400% Macrobrachium rosenbergii and 46.12±0.4691% Penaeus monodon). Carbohydrate content was found to be lesser in fries (1.91±0.03%) as compared to those of the adults (2.45±0.4003% in Macrobrachium rosenbergii and 4.3±0.2470% in Penaeus monodon). The results found in terms of the lipid content were quite inconsistant with the fries (juvenile) prawns showed lipid content (5.53±0.43%) and adults Macrobrachium rosenbergii (4.6±0.3637%) and Penaeus monodon (6.27±0.2463%). From the results we recommend the consumption of juvenile prawns over the adults, as they have good nutritional values with higher protein content than the adult prawns.