Nutritional value of Edible insects in Kalasin Province

Abstract

Determination of the nutritional composition of house cricket, field cricket, scarab beetle, true
water beetles, mole cricket, red ant queen, giant water bug, red ant worker, stink bugs and silkworm pupae
were carried out. The result showed that house cricket gave the highest protein content (59.7 % by dry
weight basis) but silkworm pupae gave smallest (38.9 % by dry weight basis) (P<0.05). The lipid of the
samples was 6.4-29.6% of dry weight basis. All samples were found essential fatty acid as linoleic acid
and α-linolenic acid. The linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid of the samples were 88.63-1,970.29 mg/ 100
g of sample and 42.01-1,537.99 mg/ 100 g of sample, respectively. The true water beetles gave the
highest 18:2n-6 fatty acid content (1,970.29 mg/ 100 g of sample) and field cricket gave the highest
α-linolenic acid content (1,537.99 mg/ 100 g of sample) (P<0.05). The edible insects were shown to be a
good source of protein and essential fatty acid.