ABSTRACT
Aims@#The primary aim of the present study is to evaluate the effect of rearing substrates on the nutritional content of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) by incorporating Cupriavidus necator cells containing intracellular polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) in BSFL diet to further increase the protein content and simultaneously to biologically extract the polymer by utilizing the digestive system of BSFL. The potential application of BSFL as a biological PHB extraction agent was determined.@*Methodology and results@#Two feeding strategies consists of a mixture of protein (P) to carbohydrate (C) with a ratio of P50:C50 food waste (control feeding) and feed with bacterial cells (modified feeding). A comparison on the proximate analysis between this research and two commercially available products were conducted. Feeding BSFL with P50:C50 food waste revealed the highest crude protein content of 81.3 ± 0.2%. Additional bacteria cells in the BSFL diet, however, showed a negligible decrease in crude protein content of 0.67% as compared to the control feeding. Howbeit, this results comparably higher in contrast to the commercial products, with increment of crude protein content by 12.1% and 40.8%, respectively.@*Conclusion, significance and impact of study@#Two desirable products were obtained from the feeding with cells: (1) high protein content of BSFL and (2) biologically extracted polymer. This is the first study to demonstrate the utilization of BSFL as a biological extraction agent to partially extract biopolymer and increase the protein content by feeding with cells.
Subject(s)
Diptera , Polyhydroxybutyrates , Animal FeedABSTRACT
Background: Chitin is an important natural resource. The annual worldwide production is estimated in approximately 10(10)-10(12) ton. It is produced by arthropods (insects and crustaceans), molluscs and fungi. Its main biological function is structural. Crustacean shells are the most important chitin source for commercial use due to its high content and ready availability. Chitin and its derivatives have great economical value because of their numerous applications: food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, textile industries, waste water treatment and agriculture. In nature, chitin is closely associated with proteins, minerals, lipid and pigments, which have to be removed. Results: Several techniques to extract chitin from different sources have been reported. The most common method for recovery of chitin from crustacean shells is the chemical procedure. It involves two mayor steps: elimination of inorganic matter (demineralization) and extraction of protein matter (deproteination) using strong acids and bases. However, these processes may cause depolymerization affecting the polymer properties such as molecular weight, viscosity and degree of acetylation. In addition, the chemical purification of chitin is hazardous, energy consuming and threatening to the environment. As an alternative to the chemical process, different biological processes have been investigated: microbiological fermentation and methodologies using enzymatic crude extracts or isolated enzymes. Conclusions: The results reported are extremely variable; however, they offer new perspectives for the production of chitin with the concomitant reduction of the environmental impact.