Amino Acid Profile of Selected Arthropod Hemolymph in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Arthropods have been studied for their anti-viral ability, anti-parasitic ability and anti-cancer ability. These abilities possessed by arthropods depend on the presence of amino acid in hemolymph to fight and also protect themselves against abilities infection. In this study, arthropods were collected from the field in Zaria using suitable/appropriate trapping and sampling techniques. The hemolymph was collected from scorpion, beetle, grasshopper, butterfly, cricket, cockroach, spider and crab using novel Antennae method of hemolymph sampling that involved ollection of hemolymph was carried out with micropipettes and drops collected was transferred into Eppendorf tubes (on ice) and kept in freezing (-11oC) compartment of ordinary refrigerator prior to use. The amino acid profile of hemolymph was carried out using microkjeldahl method. The results of the study revealed the presence of leucine, lysine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, serine, aspartic acid, valine, methionine, proline, arginine, histidine, cystine, alanine, glutamic acid, glycine and threonine in the arthropod’s hemolymph studied. Glutamic acid was found to be the most abundant in spider (5.08g/100g) while cystine was the least abundant in cricket (0.02 g/100g).