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Horseshoe crabs are anything but glamorous. Many folks consider them pests that litter the beaches. Some think their harmless tails are dangerous weapons. We've ground them up for use as nitrogen-rich fertilizer, or hog and chicken food. Eons of evolution have perfected traits important to medicine. Three Nobel prizes have been awarded for scientific research conducted on the horseshoe crab. Much of what we know about the human eye and how we see began 50 years ago with studies of the horseshoe crab's large, compound eye. Researchers have also studied the horseshoe crab's chitin, a cellulose-like compound in its shell. Unlike other arthropods, the horsehoe crab's chitin is very pure. Chitin-coated sutures and burn dressings increase healing time with less pain than standard treatments. In the 1950s, it was discovered that the horseshoe crab's copper-blue blood contains a specail clotting agent called lysate which attaches to bacterial toxins. Today every new drug that leaves a pharmaceutical company is first tested for purity with Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate. During spawning, large female horeseshoe crabs are collected, bled, tagged and returned unharmed to the water. |
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