Extraction, physicochemical characterization, and morphological properties of chitin and chitosan from cuticles of edible insects.

As an alternative, cuticles from edible insects was proposed as an unconventional but viable source of chitin and chitosan. The chitin present in the mealworm's (Tenebrio molitor) cuticles was obtained biotechnologically in one step of enzymatic deproteinization and after deacetylated. Differences in the physicochemical characteristics and the properties of the cuticles, chitin, and chitosan were investigated in this study. Commercial chitosan was used as a reference sample to validate the methods used. The enzymatic deproteinization used to obtain chitin showed an efficiency of 85%. The global yield of the process (cuticle-to-chitosan) was 31.9%. The characterization results of these polymers using DSC, FT-IR, XRD, TGA, and SEM techniques demonstrate consistency with the degree of deacetylation of the obtained chitosan, allowing the differentiation between chitin and chitosan. This study suggests that the wastes of edible insect breeding should be collected and evaluated as an alternative of chitin/chitosan source.

Edible insects: An alternative of nutritional, functional and bioactive compounds.

The ingestion of insects has become a new trend in food science approximately since 2013, when the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) published a document entitled "Edible Insects: Future Perspectives of Food and Nutrition Security". Since then, a growing number of researches relating insects as a food source has emerged, however, little is known about the composition of their nutrients. This review describes and compares the nutritional composition, functionality and the bioactive compounds present in different insects, as these have been shown to be a source of healthy food with high protein content, significant amount of lipids, vitamins, minerals and fibers, present in the form of chitin in the exoskeleton of the insects. Additionally, the issues related to entomophagy and the possible risks that should be taken into account when consuming insects are discussed.