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Termites in the Human Diet: An Investigation into Their Nutritional Profile

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African Edible Insects As Alternative Source of Food, Oil, Protein and Bioactive Components

Abstract

Many different entomophagous communities of the world consume termites particularly in time of insect’s swarming. We analysed the nutritional composition of the termites that are being used as food and found that protein and fatty acid contents differed between adult and nymphal stages. All the tested amino acids satisfied the level of a nearly ideal protein pattern. Monounsaturated fat predominated among the categories of fatty acids. Calcium and iron contents were found to be relatively high and thus helpful in mitigating some widespread deficiencies prevalent. In the context of rapid population increase and unanticipated climate change the preservation of traditional food is clearly of importance.

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Acknowledgements

In addition to the informants in the field we wish to acknowledge the support received from the Priority Research Centre’s Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2018R1A6A1A03024862).

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Author notes

  1. Sampat Ghosh

    Present address: Department of Life Sciences, Sardar Patel University, Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agriculture Science and Technology Research Institute, Andong National University, Andong, Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea

    Sampat Ghosh & Chuleui Jung

  2. Program of Applied Biology, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama, Ethiopia

    Daniel Getahun Debelo

  3. Department of Plant Medicine and Institute of Agriculture & Life Science, Gyoungsang National University, Jinju, Gyeongnam, Republic of Korea

    Wonhoon Lee

  4. Department of Plant Medicals, Andong National University, Andong, Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea

    V. Benno Meyer-Rochow & Chuleui Jung

  5. Department of Genetics and Physiology, Oulu University, Oulu, Finland

    V. Benno Meyer-Rochow

  6. Program of Applied Chemistry, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama, Ethiopia

    Aman Dekebo

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  1. Sampat Ghosh
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  2. Daniel Getahun Debelo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chuleui Jung .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage Centre, Ghibaish College of Science and Technology, Ghibaish, Sudan

    Abdalbasit Adam Mariod

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Ghosh, S., Debelo, D.G., Lee, W., Meyer-Rochow, V.B., Jung, C., Dekebo, A. (2020). Termites in the Human Diet: An Investigation into Their Nutritional Profile. In: Adam Mariod, A. (eds) African Edible Insects As Alternative Source of Food, Oil, Protein and Bioactive Components. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32952-5_22

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