POLYUNSATURATED FATTY ACID CONTENT OF EDIBLE

INSECTS IN THAILAND

LI-FENG. YANG1, SIRITHON SIRIAMORNPUN1,3 and DUO LI2

1
Department of Food Science and Nutrition
Mahasarakham University
Mahasarakham, 44000, Thailand
2
Department of Food Science and Nutrition
Zhejiang University
Hangzhou, 310029, China

Submitted for Publication January 17, 2006

Revised Received and Accepted January 30, 2006

ABSTRACT

Total lipid content and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) composition of

six species of insects (mole cricket, ground cricket, spur-throated grasshopper,
giant water bug, true water beetle and water scavenger beetle) were deter-
mined. The total PUFA ranged from 726 mg/100 g in water scavenger beetle to
2883 mg/100 g in ground cricket; 18:2n-6 was the major PUFA in most insects,
except in spur-throated grasshopper where the predominant PUFA was
18:3n-3. The C20 PUFA, 20:4n-6 and 20:5n-3 were only found in aquicolous
species, 149 and 57 mg/100 g in water scavenger beetle, 233 and 92 mg/100 g
in true water beetle, and 569 and 264 mg/100 g in giant water bug, respectively.
Total monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) content ranged from 714 mg/100 g in
water scavenger beetle to 5889 mg/100 g in giant water bug; total saturated
fatty acid (SFA) content ranged from 653 mg/100 g in water scavenger beetle to
5432 mg/100 g in giant water bug. The major MUFA in all insects was 18:1 and
predominant SFA was 16:0. Results also showed the ratios of n-6/n-3 ranged
from 0.3 in spur-throated grasshopper to 31 in mole cricket. The aquicolous
edible insects may be an alternative source of C20 long-chain PUFA.

INTRODUCTION

Dietary intervention and epidemiological studies showed that fatty acid

intake plays a key role in human health. Reduction of dietary saturated fatty
3
Corresponding author. TEL: +66-43-742823 ext. 1528; FAX: +66-43-743135; EMAIL: sirithons@
hotmail.com

Journal of Food Lipids 13 (2006) 277–285. All Rights Reserved.

© 2006, The Author(s) 277
Journal compilation © 2006, Blackwell Publishing
278 L.-F. YANG, S. SIRIAMORNPUN and D. LI

acids (SFAs) can decrease factor VII coagulant activity, which was implicated
as a risk factor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as reviewed by Lefevre et al.
(2004). Furthermore, SFAs may raise serum low-density lipoprotein choles-
terol, which was claimed to cause atherosclerosis (Ravnskov 1998; Merkel
et al. 2001). Consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) is of
increasing interest as evidenced in the literature, especially n-3 PUFA, which
have beneficial effects on reducing the risk of diabetes by reduction of glucose
intolerance (Sirtori and Galli 2002) and prevention of insulin resistance (Mori
et al. 1997), decreasing thrombotic tendency by inhibition of TXA2 (throm-
boxane A2) formation (Nieuwenhuys and Hornstra 1998) and lowering blood
pressure (Asaf et al. 2002; Sirtori and Galli 2002). Many studies proved that
the balance of consumption of n-6/n-3 is associated with human diseases.
Simopoulos (2002) indicated that a low ratio of n-6/n-3 (lower than 5) had
effects on the prevention of CVD, reducing total mortality; decreasing the risk
of breast cancer and many chronic diseases.
PUFAs such as 18:2n-6 (linoleic acid) and 18:3n-3 (alpha-linolenic acid)
are mostly present in vegetable and seed oils (David et al. 1995; Pereira et al.
2001); 20:5n-3 (eicosapentaenoic acid) and 22:6n-3 (docosahexaenoic acid)
are richly found in fish and shellfish (Sinclair et al. 1992), while SFA content
is high in animal fat and in some plant oils such as coconut and palm oils (Lee
et al. 1998; Li et al. 2002). In addition, a recent study reported that marine
macrophytes from algae and sea grass tissues contain long-chain PUFAs such
as 20:4n-6 (arachidonic acid) and 20:5n-3 in phospholipids (Sanina et al.
2004). Another study found that 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:4n-6 and 20:5n-3 were
present as the major PUFAs of some freshwater insects, which are the natural
food organisms of Atlantic salmon (Bell et al. 1994).
Thai people have a long history of consuming insects. However, there
were no data published on the lipid content and fatty acid composition of
edible insects. The aim of this study was to determine the lipid content and
PUFA compositions and concentrations of edible terricolous and aquicolous
insects commonly consumed in northeastern Thailand.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Sampling
Six insects including three kinds of terricolous insects, namely mole
cricket (Gryllotalpa africana Beauvois), ground cricket (Acheta confirmata
Walker) and spur-throated grasshopper (Chondracris roseapbrunner Uvarov),
as well as three kinds of aquicolous insects, namely giant water bug (Lethocerus
indicus Lep.-serv), true water beetle (Cybister limbatus Fabricius) and water
 PUFA CONTENT OF THAI EDIBLE INSECTS 279

scavenger beetle (Hydrous cavistanum Bedel), were collected from the local
wild bush and freshwater lake, Mahasarakham, Thailand. All insects were
stored at -20C before analysis. Analyses were conducted in triplicate (n = 3).
Lipid Extraction
Lipids were extracted according to the method of Bligh and Dyer (1959).
Approximately 5 g of well-ground samples was extracted with 50.0 mL of
chloroform–methanol (2:1, v/v) containing 10 mg/L of butylated hydroxytolu-
ene and 0.1 mg/mL of tricosanoic acid (C23:0, Nu-Chek-Prep, Elysian, MN)
as an internal standard. Then, the samples were stored in a fume hood over-
night. Each sample was filtered and transferred into a separate funnel and
added with 15 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride. The samples were shaken well to
allow the phases to separate; the lower phase was then evaporated and trans-
ferred into a 10-mL volumetric flask.
Fatty Acid Analysis
Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) of the total lipid extract were prepared
by transesterfication in H2SO4 (0.9 mol/L in methanol). Before injection into
the gas chromatograph, the FAMEs were filtered by Sep-pak silica column
(Alltech Associates, Inc., Deerfield, IL). Samples (1 mL) were analyzed quan-
titatively using a Shimadzu model GC-17A system (Shimadzu, Tokyo, Japan)
fitted with flame ionization detection eluted with H2 at 30 ⫾ 1 mL/min, with a
split ratio of 1:17. A fused silica capillary column (30 m ¥ 0.25 mm, 25-mm
film thickness; DB-Wax, J & W Scientific, Folsom, CA) was used. The injector
and detector were maintained at 270C. Nitrogen was used as a carrier gas and
temperature programming was from 150C (hold 1 min) to 180C at 25C/min,
then to 220C (hold 4 min) at 2.5C/min and then to 230C (hold 3 min) at
15C/min. Fatty acids were identified by comparison with standard mixtures of
FAME (Nu-Chek-Prep) running the same method (Liu et al. 2000).
Statistics
Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS (Statistical Program for
Social Sciences, SPSS Corporation, Chicago, IL) version 12.0 for Windows.
Data were presented as mean ⫾ SD in all tables analyzed by general analysis of
variance.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Total Lipid Content

The total lipid content of lipid fraction of edible insect samples is shown
in Table 1. The lipid content was significantly different in different species.
280 L.-F. YANG, S. SIRIAMORNPUN and D. LI

TABLE 1.
LIPID CONTENT (g/100 g) OF THAI EDIBLE INSECTS (n = 3)

Species Lipid content

Terricolous Mole cricket 13.4 ⫾ 2.1

Ground cricket 10.2 ⫾ 0.6
Spur-throated grasshopper 6.2 ⫾ 1.5
Aquicolous Giant water bug 20.1 ⫾ 2.7
True water beetle 6.6 ⫾ 0.3
Water scavenger beetle 2.9 ⫾ 0.4

Giant water bug, which lives in freshwater, had the highest content of lipid
(20%), followed by mole cricket (13%), which lives on grass, while water
scavenger beetle had the lowest lipid content (3%).

Fatty Acid Composition and Concentration

The concentration of total PUFAs ranged from 726 mg/100 g in water
scavenger beetle to 2883 mg/100 g in ground cricket (Table 2). The total
concentration of PUFAs can be compared to red meat and some fish such as
whiting sand, bream black (Sinclair et al. 1992; Li et al. 2002) and much more
than that found in fresh vegetables (Pereira et al. 2001). There were two
PUFAs (18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3) detected in three species of terricolous insects;
while four PUFAs (18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:4n-6 and 20:5n-3) were present in
three species of aquicolous insects. For all insects, 18:2n-6 had the highest
concentration, except for spur-throated grasshopper in which the 18:3n-3
concentration was the highest. The 18:2n-6 concentration ranged from
453 mg/100 g in water scavenger beetle to 2740 mg/100 g in ground cricket.
The 18:3n-3 concentration ranged from 51 mg/100 g that accounted for 0.5%
of total fatty acids in mole cricket to 1855 mg/100 g that accounted for 40% of
total fatty acids in spur-throated grasshopper (Table 3). High 18:3n-3 in grass-
hopper was caused by the grasshopper’s diet of green leaves, which contained
the precursor of n-3 PUFA (Pereira et al. 2001). The 18:3n-6 was only detected
in true water beetle at a concentration of 87 mg/100 g that accounted for 1.5%
of total fatty acids, and there was no 22:6n-3 found in any insects.
A lower ratio of n-6/n-3 fatty acids is more desirable, based on the
bioactivities such as anti-inflammatory (Ziboh et al. 2000), antitumor
(Leonard 2000) and antithrombotic (Abeywardena et al. 1991) activities. The
present study showed that the three species of aquicolous insects only provided
an n-6/n-3 ratio of less than 5; the other two species of terricolous insects
(mole and ground crickets) provided an n-6/n-3 ratio of 31 and 19, respec-
tively. The reason for aquicolous insects containing long-chain PUFAs and
 TABLE 2.
FATTY ACID CONCENTRATION (mg/100 g) OF THAI EDIBLE INSECTS (n = 3)

Fatty acid Terricolous Aquicolous

Mole cricket Ground cricket Spur-throated grasshopper Giant water bug True water beetle Water scavenger beetle

15:0 133.9 ⫾ 20.1 67.5 ⫾ 4.3 43.9 ⫾ 0.2 166.1 ⫾ 14.4 107.4 ⫾ 14.0 10.8 ⫾ 1.5
16:0 3181.7 ⫾ 345.9 2223.2 ⫾ 162.9 837.3 ⫾ 22.2 4407.8 ⫾ 126.7 1687.4 ⫾ 259.0 461.0 ⫾ 92.4
17:0 nd nd 41.0 ⫾ 3.9 103.6 ⫾ 16.7 61.2 ⫾ 3.1 17.3 ⫾ 1.7
18:0 625.4 ⫾ 84.9 468.5 ⫾ 49.4 295.4 ⫾ 49.3 754.5 ⫾ 73.1 258.8 ⫾ 31.1 120.3 ⫾ 21.6
20:0 nd 29.4 ⫾ 2.3 nd nd 34.2 ⫾ 7.5 43.4 ⫾ 1.1
SFA 3942.3 ⫾ 451.1 2788.6 ⫾ 216.2 1217.6 ⫾ 53.1 5432.0 ⫾ 164.4 2149.0 ⫾ 309.5 652.8 ⫾ 116.8
16:1 528.8 ⫾ 46.8 201.7 ⫾ 28.1 47.7 ⫾ 9.3 1106.7 ⫾ 69.9 429.4 ⫾ 92.7 65.2 ⫾ 4.4
18:1 5104.8 ⫾ 807.7 2647.1 ⫾ 139.7 934.7 ⫾ 82.4 4782.2 ⫾ 337.2 1639.6 ⫾ 181.0 648.6 ⫾ 102.7
MUFA 5667.8 ⫾ 859.6 2848.8 ⫾ 161.4 982.4 ⫾ 73.3 5888.9 ⫾ 406.9 2069.0 ⫾ 251.6 713.7 ⫾ 106.9
18:2n-6 1541.6 ⫾ 250.4 2739.6 ⫾ 223.4 569.1 ⫾ 52.8 1238.3 ⫾ 196.1 776.1 ⫾ 185.1 453.0 ⫾ 106.4
18:3n-3 51.1 ⫾ 5.5 143.5 ⫾ 8.9 1854.5 ⫾ 178.7 472.7 ⫾ 38.7 366.2 ⫾ 71.9 66.5 ⫾ 19.6
18:3n-6 nd nd nd nd 87.3 ⫾ 26.7 nd
20:4n-6 nd nd nd 569.3 ⫾ 59.9 232.5 ⫾ 29.7 148.7 ⫾ 22.7
PUFA CONTENT OF THAI EDIBLE INSECTS

20:5n-3 nd nd nd 263.6 ⫾ 107.4 92.0 ⫾ 7.3 57.2 ⫾ 8.2

PUFA 1592.7 ⫾ 255.9 2883.2 ⫾ 231.3 2423.6 ⫾ 196.0 2543.9 ⫾ 107.0 1554.1 ⫾ 309.5 725.5 ⫾ 156.9

nd, not detected; SFA, saturated fatty acid; MUFA, monounsaturated fatty acid; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid.
281
 282

TABLE 3.
FATTY ACID COMPOSITION (% OF TOTAL FATTY ACIDS) OF THAI EDIBLE INSECTS (n = 3)

Fatty acid Terricolous Aquicolous

Mole cricket Ground cricket Spur-throated grasshopper Giant water bug True water beetle Water scavenger beetle

15:0 1.2 ⫾ 0.2 0.8 ⫾ 0.1 1.0 ⫾ 0.1 1.2 ⫾ 0.1 1.9 ⫾ 0.1 0.5 ⫾ 0.1
16:0 28.6 ⫾ 0.7 26.1 ⫾ 0.8 18.2 ⫾ 1.0 31.8 ⫾ 0.4 29.2 ⫾ 0.8 22.0 ⫾ 0.5
17:0 nd nd 0.9 ⫾ 0.1 0.8 ⫾ 0.1 1.1 ⫾ 0.1 0.8 ⫾ 0.1
18:0 5.6 ⫾ 0.3 5.5 ⫾ 0.3 6.4 ⫾ 0.8 5.5 ⫾ 0.6 4.5 ⫾ 0.1 5.8 ⫾ 0.0
20:0 nd 0.4 ⫾ 0.0 nd nd 0.6 ⫾ 0.1 2.1 ⫾ 0.4
SFA 35.4 ⫾ 1.0 32.7 ⫾ 1.0 26.4 ⫾ 0.7 39.2 ⫾ 1.0 37.2 ⫾ 0.6 31.2 ⫾ 0.2
16:1 4.8 ⫾ 0.4 2.4 ⫾ 0.3 1.0 ⫾ 0.3 8.0 ⫾ 0.3 7.5 ⫾ 1.6 3.2 ⫾ 0.4
18:1 45.6 ⫾ 2.1 31.1 ⫾ 0.6 20.2 ⫾ 0.6 34.5 ⫾ 1.5 28.5 ⫾ 1.3 31.1 ⫾ 0.8
MUFA 50.4 ⫾ 2.2 33.5 ⫾ 0.6 21.2 ⫾ 0.5 42.5 ⫾ 1.8 36.0 ⫾ 2.8 34.3 ⫾ 1.3
18:2n-6 13.8 ⫾ 1.4 32.2 ⫾ 1.4 12.3 ⫾ 1.0 9.0 ⫾ 1.5 13.3 ⫾ 1.7 21.5 ⫾ 1.3
18:3n-3 0.5 ⫾ 0.1 1.7 ⫾ 0.1 40.1 ⫾ 1.8 3.4 ⫾ 0.3 6.3 ⫾ 0.5 3.1 ⫾ 0.4
18:3n-6 nd nd nd nd 1.5 ⫾ 0.3 nd
20:4n-6 nd nd nd 4.1 ⫾ 0.3 4.0 ⫾ 0.3 7.1 ⫾ 0.2
L.-F. YANG, S. SIRIAMORNPUN and D. LI

20:5n-3 nd nd nd 1.9 ⫾ 0.7 1.6 ⫾ 0.3 2.8 ⫾ 0.1

PUFA 14.3 ⫾ 1.5 33.8 ⫾ 1.5 52.4 ⫾ 0.9 18.4 ⫾ 0.8 26.8 ⫾ 2.2 34.5 ⫾ 1.4
n-6/n-3 31 19 0.3 2.4 2.3 4.5

nd, not detected; SFA, saturated fatty acid; MUFA, monounsaturated fatty acid; PUFA, polyunsaturated fatty acid.
 PUFA CONTENT OF THAI EDIBLE INSECTS 283

different fatty acid compositions is linked to the diet and enzymatic activity in
the insects. The diet of aquicolous insects included larvae and algae (Kiyashko
et al. 2004; Sanina et al. 2004), which had a small amount of long-chain
PUFAs such as 20:4n-6 and 20:5n-3. In contrast, aquicolous insects possessed
enzymes such as D5 desaturase and D6 desaturase, which may have contrib-
uted to the synthesis of long-chain PUFAs (Sprecher 2000; Sinclair et al.
2002). In the present study, we detected only 0.5% of 18:3n-3, but 46% of 18:1
(oleic acid) in mole cricket. This may be attributed to the D9 desaturase,
enzyme which was found in house cricket, as same suborder as mole cricket
(Riddervold et al. 2002).
The total SFA concentration in this study ranged from 653 mg/100 g in
water scavenger beetle to 5432 mg/100 g in giant water bug. The main SFA in
insects was 16:0 (palmitic acid) ranging from 18.2% of total fatty acids in
spur-throated grasshopper to 31.8% of total fatty acids in giant water bug,
followed by 18:0 (stearic acid), with the composition ranging from 4.5% in
true water beetle to 6.4% in spur-throated grasshopper. Giant water bug had the
highest amount of 16:0 and total SFA content in both composition and con-
centration, but with a small account of 20:4n-6 and 20:5n-3.
The concentration of total MUFA content ranged from 714 mg/100 g in
water scavenger beetle to 5889 mg/100 g in giant water bug. Only two MUFAs
were detected in the insect samples, namely 16:1 (palmitoleic acid) and 18:1.
The main MUFA in both ground- and water-living insects was 18:1. Mole
cricket had the highest 18:1 concentration (5105 mg/100 g), which accounted
for 46% of total fatty acids. This composition is much higher than that found
in corn and soybean oils, but smaller than that found in olive oil. Expressions
of D9 and D11 desaturase genes in insects reported elsewhere showed
increased productions of 16:1 and 18:1 (Rodriguez et al. 2004).

CONCLUSIONS

The PUFAs present in the aquicolous insects were 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3,

20:4n-6 and 20:5n-3, while in the terricolous insects, the PUFAs present were
18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3. Diet and endoenzyme of the insects may contribute to the
different PUFA compositions in the Thai edible insects. Aquicolous insects
may be an alternative dietary source of C20 long-chain PUFA.

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