Vermipharmaceuticals and active proteins isolated from earthworms

The earthworm is one of the typical saprophagous organisms that has been successfully used to convert organic waste into biomass. Indeed, vermicomposting occurs throughout the world. More recently, research on pharmaceuticals derived from earthworms, known as green biomedicine, has been increasing. As a result, earthworms have become an international medicine, even though their original utilization in traditional medicine has been known for thousands of years. With the development of biomedicine, scientists have rediscovered the medicinal value of earthworms related to many chemical components, including (1) earthworm proteases (lumbrokinase, collagenase, superoxide dismutase, cholinesterase, catalases, glycosidases); (2) metal-binding protein (metallothionein, calmodulin-binding protein); (3) other active proteins including those with proliferative improving activity like lysenin, eiseniapore, antitumor proteins, and glycoprotein; (4) active peptides (gut mobility regulation peptide, antibacterial peptide); (5) earthworm metabolites (carbamidine, lumbrinin, lumbrofobrin, terrestrolumbrolysin); (6) special organic acids (succinic acid, lauric acid, and unsaturated fatty acid) and (7) other components such as purin, vitamin B, tyrosine and Se. In this paper, we mainly describe earthworm fibrinolytic enzymes and antibacterial peptides in particular. (C) 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.