Food and Medicinal Aspects of Freshwater Snail Filopaludina bengalensis (Lamarck, 1822)

Abstract

Food is becoming more and more scarce due to several negative factors. People only focus on the readily available foods in their vicinity that are limited and well-known. Unexplored foods from the forest are out of our food baskets due to a metallic lifestyle that creates a lot of health problems and retards the development of a nation. From the forest’s wealth, plants are more known, but edible insects, snails, fish, and other such species are less known and need to be explored. Keeping this in view, an attempt has been made to find medicinal foods from the faunal wealth of Odisha. A survey was carried out in selected districts (Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj, Cuttack, and Keonjhar) of Odisha state in 2023 and enumerated the species from the faunal wealth having food and medicinal values. Results revealed that snails are most common and consumed as a nutraceutical and have fewer scientifically known taxa in medico-food aspects. In this communication, the food and medicinal uses of Filopaludina bengalensis, a freshwater snail, are discussed, and further advanced work is recommended to do value addition for sustainable utilization.