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Insect biodiversity: underutilized bioresource for sustainable applications in life sciences

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Abstract

Due to the growing world population and changing eating habits, there is an increasing demand in sustainable alternative protein sources, whereas the available land for the production of plant and animal protein decreases owing to desertification and urbanization. Furthermore, the rapidly decreasing resources of fossil fuels necessitate more sustainable production cycles combined with well-conceived land use. This includes the establishment of novel utilization pathways for hitherto not or insufficiently used biomass. In this context, insects offer prospective alternatives, since they represent highly efficient and, due to evolutionary processes, highly optimized bioreactors that have the ability to effectively and autonomously convert biomass into biochemical compounds such as proteins, fat, and chitin by combined mechanical, chemical, and microbiological degradation. Furthermore, insects are a vastly underutilized bioresource and need to be exploited for the bioconversion and valorization also of hitherto not usable organic residues to food, feed, chemicals, enzymes, and other bioactive compounds. Mentionable is here also the production of attractants, repellants, defensive, and other chemicals such as antimicrobial peptides that open up new opportunities for therapeutical and biotechnological applications, for example regarding plant pest management.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the seed money program of the Leibniz Network on Biodiversity (LVB).

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  1. Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim e.V., Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469, Postdam, Germany

    Birgit A. Rumpold, Michael Klocke & Oliver Schlüter

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  1. Birgit A. Rumpold
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  2. Michael Klocke
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Correspondence to Oliver Schlüter.

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Rumpold, B.A., Klocke, M. & Schlüter, O. Insect biodiversity: underutilized bioresource for sustainable applications in life sciences. Reg Environ Change 17, 1445–1454 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-0967-6

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