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.