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Many people do not know a horseshoe crab blood's purpose. But in the 1970s, the blood of a horseshoe crab has helped humans to fight off disease in their system during a health crisis. While many people could think that horseshoe crab blood could be a good business, especially in the medical field, it could have harmed the ecosystem more and could have led to the extinction of crabs that could help us.
A horseshoe crab's blood is very unique, especially its features. Unlike any creature's blood, their blood is blue and opaque. Not only that, but their blood is also considered to be very precious, and it will cost you more than what you think if you acquire it.
What is a horseshoe crab?
Horseshoe crabs are prominent in the continents of North America and Asia. They are one of the most valued creatures on Earth because of the medical benefits humans can get from it, specifically their blood.
Horseshoe crab blood is one of the most important elements when it comes to testing drugs and vaccines when it comes to safety. Thus, it has contributed way more than you think in the medical field.
However, obtaining a horseshoe crab blood is not easy, nor cheap. It can cost you about $15,000 per quart of its blood, and it is known to be one of the most expensive resources you can get in the world.
Also, since horseshoe crab blood is very beneficial, it also concerns experts that the crabs might go extinct. Knowing the benefits humans could get from them, it could have them erased in this world, which will also bring harm to humankind.
Benefits of horseshoe crab blood
Aside from being used as a test for new drugs and vaccines, horseshoe crabs have been very helpful even in the past years. These crabs are known to be "living fossils," and their species are one of the few who survived on Earth 450 million years ago.
When you take a look at the crabs, they look like fossils themselves. Their whole body is covered with hard carapaces and they have a distinct feature that is not developed just like most modern animals.
An interesting fact about horseshoe crabs are they are not considered to be crustaceans. They belong more to the arthropods and they are more likely close to scorpions than crabs.
Why is their blood so precious?
The study and discovery of how beneficial a horseshoe crab's blood began when Frederick Bang, a pathologist, made a research about it. Bang made a series of different experiments that tested horseshoe crab's blood and its elements. He tried to inject bacteria from seawater directly to the horseshoe crab and studied if how it would react to the bacteria. However, the most prominent and successful study Bang did that is related to its blood is it contains important elements that could help medical experts in testing modern medicine and drugs.
Bang was able to publish a study titled "A Bacterial Disease of Limulus Polyphemus" in 1956 after he tried a few experiments on horseshoe crabs. He mentioned his findings in the study and it is now widely used by medical researchers, experts, and students in drug testing.
