Nutritional properties of edible bird nest

Abstract

Edible bird nest (EBN) is a dried glutinous secretion from the salivary glands of several different swiftlet species. It is widely consumed as a health food due to its high beneficial effects to human health and has been considered to be one of the most precious food items by the Chinese for thousands of years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the nutritional properties of clean and unclean EBN collected from the swiftlet species Aerodramus fuciphagus at several geographical locations : Malaysia (Perlis and Langkawi), Indonesia (Java, Balikpapan and Kalimantan), Thailand and Philippines from swiftlet species. The nest type from Langkawi is of the cave type while the others are of the house nest type. Analytical results showed protein content as the most abundant component in EBN ranging from 59.8-65.4%, followed by carbohydrate content ranging from 8.5%-16.4%. EBN from Philippines showed highest percentage of carbohydrate content. Fat content determined using Soxtec method showed the lowest percentage ranging from 0.01%-0.07%. The study showed EBN with a high concentration of nitrite and nitrate, particularly EBN of the cave nest type collected from Langkawi followed by EBN of Java and Balik Papan. EBN from Kalimantan and Perlis were devoid of nitrite and nitrate. There is no significant differences in moisture and ash content (5.58-13.88%) among all EBN from different locations. This study profiled the nutritional properties of EBN from different geographical locations indicating a high protein content in all EBN followed by a declining trend of carbohydrate, moisture, ash and fat contents