Chemical components in yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor L.) reared with tea powder

Abstract

The research highlights of the manuscript are as follows: • Tea powder was used for the first time to rear yellow mealworms. • Yellow mealworms can grow well by tea powder rearing. • The content of the function components such as tea polyphenols, total Catechins, Catechin(C), Epicatechins(EC), Epigallocatechins(EGC), Epicatechin gallates(ECG), and Epigallocatechin gallates(EGCG),as well as the nutrition component protein, were all significantly increased along with the increased ratio of tea powder. • Reared with tea powder, the yellow mealworm grow well with protein and fatty acid changing for suitable for human being health. • Yellow mealworm reared with tea powder can be a kind of good potential food for people. The yellow mealworms ( Tenebrio molitor L .) were reared by different ratios of tea powder and wheat bran powder mixtures, and weighted every day during the whole 10 days rearing. The content of tea polyphenols, total catechins, catechin (C), epicatechins (EC), epigallocatechins (EGC), epicatechin gallates (ECG), epigallocatechin gallates (EGCG), and nutrition components such as protein and fatty acid in the yellow mealworms were determined after 10 days rearing. The yellow mealworms can put on weight and grow well when the proportion of tea powder belows 80%, while 100% tea powder rearing has no signifi cantly reduced the weight of yellow mealworms. The content of tea polyphenols, total catechins, C, EC, EGC, ECG, and EGCG all enhance signifi cantly along with the increase ratio of the tea powder. The protein content increase more signifi cantly at 50% and 80% ratios treatments than the other treatments. Tea powder added rearing reduces the content of saturated fatty acid, and has a complex effect on the content of unsaturated fatty acid. Comprehensive analysis of the components determined show that 50% ratio is the best for yellow mealworm rearing.