Abstract
Insect chitin was isolated from different life stages of the black soldier fly Hermetia illucens, such as instar stages, prepupae and pupae, reared separately on fruit and vegetable waste substrates after removal of fat, protein and minerals. Chitin yield was high in prepupae fed with vegetable waste (11.78 ± 0.13%) followed by fruit waste (6.82 ± 0.36%). The extracted chitin was compared with a commercial chitin from shrimp by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The results revealed that both chitins from commercial shrimp source and the H. illucens had similar chemical structures and physicochemical properties indicating the H. illucens chitin samples to be of α- chitin orientation type. With regards to the H. illucens samples, small physiochemical changes were noticed. Furthermore, the polymers derived from BSF are equivalent to commercial polymers in terms of purity and structural morphology, indicating their utility for industrial and medical applications. Thus, H. illucens prepupae is a promising alternative source of chitin.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Department of Life sciences, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), for providing the facilities to carry out the research, Mr Lexu Jose, Instrumentation Engineer, for his support in XRD analysis, Mr Jyothis Devasia, lab instructor for his help in FTIR analysis, Mr Hemanth, Analyst, CIF, UASB for the support in the use of scanning electron microscope.
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Rampure, S.M., Velayudhannair, K. & Marimuthu, N. Characteristics of chitin extracted from different growth phases of black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens, fed with different organic wastes. Int J Trop Insect Sci 43, 979–987 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-023-00997-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42690-023-00997-6