Derivatization of Chitin and Chitosan from Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) and Their Use as Feed Additives: An In vitro Study

Abstract

B lack soldier fly larvae (BSF, Hermetia illucens) has been recently considered as a promising protein source for animal feed, both for monogastrics (Cullere et al., 2016) and ruminants ( Jayanegara et al., 2017a).It is characterized by its high protein content as well as good amino acid profiles (Sanchez-Muros et al., 2014).Protein itself plays an important role in the body of livestock; it serves as building blocks for various tissues and organs, and involves in the regulatory function as an integral component of various enzymes and hormones.Our previous study demonstrated that BSF contained protein in its body of more than 40% on dry matter basis ( Jayanegara et al., 2017a).Other stud-ies reported that the crude protein content of BSF ranged from 38.3 to 58.8% (Marono et al., 2015; Oonincx et al., 2015; Spranghers et al., 2017).Apart from its high protein content, BSF has other additional advantages in which it grows rapidly on various organic substrates (Spranghers et al., 2017), and does not provide any adverse effect on environment and human health.Despite all of its potency, BSF contains considerable amount of chitin that may limit its use as animal feed.Chitin is a polymer of N-acetylglucosamine and typically present in substantial amount in insects.It had been reported that chitin content of BSF ranged from 8.7 to 9.6% (Diener et al., 2009; Kroeckel et al., 2012).Chitin is insol-