Еуропалық үлкен қоңыр құбыршабұрық ішекқуысты жұмсақ денелілер

Species of gastropod

Helix pomatia, common names are the Roman snail, Burgundy snail, or escargot, is a species of large, air breathing stylommatophoran land snail native to Europe. It is characterized by a globular brown shell. It is an edible species. Helix pomatia commonly occurs synanthropically throughout its range.

The present distribution of Helix pomatia is considerably affected by the dispersion of humans and synanthropic occurrences. The northern limits of their natural distribution run presumably through central Germany and southern Poland with the eastern range limits running through western most Ukraine and Moldova/Romania to Bulgaria. In the south, the species reaches northern Bulgaria, central Serbia, Bosnia and Hezegovina and Croatia. It occurs in northern Italy southwards to the Po and the Ligurian Apennines. Westerly the native range extends to eastern France. Helix pomatia is now distributed up to western Belarus and the Baltic states, the south of Finland, Sweden and Norway, Denmark, northern Germany, and the Benelux. Scattered introduced populations occur westwards up to northern Spain. In Great Britain, it lives on chalk soils in the south and west of England. In the east, it was introduced up to the Volga.

The shell is creamy white to light brownish, often with indistinct brown colour bands although sometimes the banding is well developed and conspicuous. The shell has five to six whorls. The aperture is large. The apertural margin is white and slightly reflected in adult snails. The umbilicus is narrow and partly covered by the reflected columellar margin. Juveniles hatch after three to four weeks, and may consume their siblings under unfavourable climate conditions. H. pomatia is threatened by continuous habitat destructions and drainage, usually less threatened by commercial collections. and the species is protected in some (e. g. Burgenland). Great Britain: protected in England under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, making it illegal to kill, injure, collect or sell these snails. France: collecting prohibited of individuals with shell diameter under 3 cm and during the period from 1 April to 30 June. Denmark: commercial collecting is prohibited.

In Japan, the Mie Escargot Farm succeeded in the complete cultivation of the Burgundy species (Pomatia).

The intestinal juice of H. pomatia contains large amounts of aryl, steroid, and glucosinolate sulfatase activities. These sulfatases have a broad specificity, so they are commonly used as a hydrolyzing agent in analytical procedures such as chromatography where they are used to prepare samples for analysis.

Roman snails were eaten by both Ancient Greeks and Romans. Nowadays, these snails are especially popular in French cuisine. In the English language, it is called by the French name escargot when used in cooking (escargot simply means snail). Although this species is highly prized as a food, it is difficult to cultivate and is rarely farmed commercially.