Extraction of chitin and chitosan from larval exuvium and whole body of edible mealworm, Tenebrio molitor

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the production of chitin and chitosan from both the exuvium and whole body of mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) larvae. Chitin from the exuvium and whole body of T. molitor larvae was chemically extracted with acid and alkali solutions to achieve demineralization (DM) and deproteinization (DP), respectively. The average DM (%) and DP (%) on a dry weight (DW) basis was 32.56 and 73.16% from larval exuvium, and 41.68 and 91.53% from whole body, respectively. To obtain chitosan, chitin particles from the exuvium and whole body of T. molitor larva were heated at various temperatures in different concentrations of NaOH. Average chitin yields were 18.01% and 4.92% of DW from the exuvium and whole body, respectively. The relative average yield of chitosan from whole body was 3.65% of DW. On average, over 90% of chitosan derived from whole body was deacetylated. The viscosity of chitosan from whole body was ranged from 48.0 cP to 54.0 cP. The chitin content of dry and wet byproducts from whole body were 17.32% and 16.94% respectively, compared to dry weight. The chitosan contents of byproducts on a DW basis were 14.48% in dry and 13.07% in wet byproduct. These results indicate that the exuvium and whole body of T. molitor larva may serve as a source of chitin and chitosan for use in domestic animal feed.

The effect of fish and mealworm larvae meals as alternative dietary protein sources on nutrient digestibility and gastrointestinal function in <i>Chinchilla lanigera</i>

“…in both insect meal samples, total protein digestibility was negatively correlated with the content of aDF and chitin. however, average chitin yields in mealworm larvae were estimated at 4.92% of dry matter [16,28]. therefore, the effect of chitin in this study could not be significant due to its relative low content of the MwM diet.…”

Insects as food and feed, a new emerging agricultural sector: a review

“…Chitin can be extracted chemically or biologically via fermentation with microorganisms and enzymes, the latter method being much more environmental friendly (Rumpold et al, 2017). The first method using acid and alkali solutions yielded 4.9% chitin and 3.7% chitosan from yellow mealworm larvae (Song et al, 2018). The enzymatic method was explored with black soldier fly prepupae (Caligiani et al, 2018).…”

Edible Insects Processing: Traditional and Innovative Technologies

“…Another area of interest consists of the development of functional ingredients for food, feed, pharmaceutical, and industrial applications. Ingredients of interest such as chitin (Song et al., ), oleic acid (Purschke, Stegmann, Schreiner, & Jäger, ; Sun et al., ), proteins (Bußler, Rumpold, Jander, Rawel, & Schlüter, ; Huang et al., ; Ndiritu, Kinyuru, Kenji, & Gichuhi, ), and bioactive peptides (Montowska, Kowalczewski, Rybicka, & Fornal, ; Nongonierma & FitzGerald, ; Zielińska, Karaś, & Jakubczyk, ) have been partially or totally extracted and purified. Nonetheless, scaling up these processes to the industrial level would still be too costly (Lamsal, Wang, Pinsirodom, & Dossey, ).…”