Production of chitin from dead Hermetia Illucens

Abstract

Searching for new ecologically and economically efficient sources of chitin is of great interest in the field of biotechnology. Nowadays, the topic is growing fast, and many scientists, researchers, primarily the representatives of the Russian Chitin Society, study and search for new sources of chitin not only from large crustaceans, molluscs, and crabs, but also from insects and small crustaceans. Domesticated and liable to breeding representatives of invertebrate animals, particularly large American Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens L.) can be new and promising raw material source. The Fly is a promising object of research because it contains a chitinous external skeleton. During the studies at the Biology, Ecology and Biotechnology Department of NARFU named after M. V. Lomonosov, there were determined a sufficiently high percentage chitin yield from dead flies equal to 21.3% (1281.2 g per year per 1 m3 of a cage), almost complete absence of residual protein (C = 0.98 µg/ml) and high adsorption ability (X = 156.6 mg/g) of the extracted polysaccharide. Studied qualitative characteristics enable to consider the product as environmentally and economically cost-effective sorbent with the possibility of application in many areas of biotechnology, environmental and industrial fields of production.

Isolation of Chitin from Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) and Its Usage to Metal Sorption

“…The literature data on the isolation yield varies considerably, e.g., the isolation yield of chitin from silkworm was 2.59–4.23% [ 40 ], and from bees 18% [ 34 ], or even 19–36.8% [ 41 ]. However, these are results for chitin isolated from other sources, and the organisms differ in their chitin content [ 22 ]. Chitin was isolated from Hermetia illucens with a yield of about 20%, so much higher than in this study [ 22 , 25 , 42 ].…”

“…However, these are results for chitin isolated from other sources, and the organisms differ in their chitin content [ 22 ]. Chitin was isolated from Hermetia illucens with a yield of about 20%, so much higher than in this study [ 22 , 25 , 42 ]. The first difference between our work and the cited studies is the source of chitin isolation—in our case it was pupal exuviae, while the other authors used dead flies.…”

“…Another difference between the presented work and the results from the literature is the use of different concentrations of the same reagents for a different period of time and at a different temperature. Previously, chitin was isolated from Hermetia illucens using hydrochloric acid (5%) (at room temperature, for 2 h) and sodium hydroxide (5%) (at 100 °C, for 3 h), then the obtained precipitate was washed with ethanol, and its residues were removed with chloroform [ 22 ]. On the other hand, Hahn et al used three different methods to measure chitin content in various insects (also Hermetia illucens ): acid detergent fibre (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), a combination of both (ADF-ADL) and acetyl group measurement.…”

“…Another source of chitin is sponge skeleton [ 17 , 18 ]. Yet another source of chitin are insects [ 19 , 20 , 21 ] and among them is H ermetia illucens , also known as the black soldier fly or black fly [ 3 , 22 , 23 ].…”

Recent insights into the extraction, characterization, and bioactivities of chitin and chitosan from insects

“…It was reported that the chitin and chitosan contents of hymenopteran species such as honey bee, Apsis mellifera ( N. Marei, Elwahy, Salah, El Sherif, & Abd El-Samie, 2019 ; Nemtsev, Zueva, Khismatullin, Albulov, & Varlamov, 2004 ; Tsaneva et al, 2018 ) different varied from wasp species ( Kaya, Bağrıaçık, Seyyar, & Baran, 2015 ; Kaya et al, 2016 ) and Bumblebee, Bombus terrestris ( Majtán et al, 2007 ) ranged between 2.5 and 40%, 16–25% and 2.2–11.9% DW. Nevertheless, some species of housefly had low chitin including Musca domestica , black soldier fly, Hermetia illucens , and Chrysomya megacephala reported to be 8.02–5.87%, 3.1–23 and 32%, but Drosophila melanogaster , showed a low to high chitin yield of 7.85–70.91% ( Antonov, Ivanov, Pastukhova, & Bovykina, 2019 ; D'Hondt et al, 2020 ; Kaya et al, 2016 ; Kim et al, 2016 ; Purkayastha & Sarkar, 2020 ; C.; Song, Yu, Zhang, Yang, & Zhang, 2013 ). The yield of the chitin and chitosan from insects are similar to the chitin extracted from crustacean shell waste.…”