Postmortem Biochemical Changes in Muscle of Buccinum striatissimum during Storage

The changes in content of ATP and its related compounds, free amino acids, organic acids and opines were investigated in the muscle of B. striatissimum during storage at 0°C and 5°C. Immediately after shelling, the total amount of ATP and its related compounds were 2.8μmol/g. ATP, ADP and AMP accounted for 98% of the total ATP and its related compounds. ATP reached the highest level on the 1st day at 0°C, then decreased slowly. ATP degraded faster at 0°C than at 5°C. AMP was decomposed to inosine through both pathways, since IMP and adenosine were detected. Hypoxanthine, xanthine and uric acid increased with the decrease of ATP. Immediately after shelling, the total amount of free amino acids in the muscle were 1, 719 mg/100 g. Taurine, arginine, proline, alanine, glutamic acid and glycine were major free amino acids and accounted for 87% of the total amount of free amino acids. Acetic acid increased rapidly during storage, but octopine and alanopine increased slowly.