HOW STRANGE A NON-STRANGE HEAVY BARYON

We give some general arguments in favor of the large magnitude of matr ix elements of an operator associated with nonvalence quarks in heavy hadrons. We estimate matrix element 1/2m Lambda(b)[Lambda(b)\<(s)over bar s>\Lambda(b)] similar or equal to 1-2 for Lambda(b) baryon whose v alence content is b, u, d quarks. This magnitude corresponds to a noti ceable contribution of the strange quark into the heavy baryon mass 1/ 2m(Lambda b)[Lambda b\m(s)<(s)over bar s>\Lambda(b)] similar or equal to 200-300 MeV. The arguments are based on the QCD sum rules and low e nergy theorems. The physical picture behind of the phenomenon is somew hat similar to the one associated with the large strange content of th e nucleon where matrix element [p\<(s)over bar s>\p] similar or equal to 1 by no means is small. We discuss some possible applications of th e result. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.