Conversion of waste parasitic insect (Hylobius abietis L.) into antioxidative, antimicrobial and biodegradable films

Hylobius abietis is a plant parasitic insect belonging to the order Coleoptera and which causes severe damages to coniferous forests in Northern and Eastern Europe. This current study is aimed to provide a new viewpoint into the waste of this insect by producing chitosan. Dry insect corpses consisted of 27.9% chitin and 86.2% of the chitin was converted into the chitosan. FT-IR spectra analyses confirmed the purity and the deacetylation degree of the produced chitosan (molecular weight of chitosan; 7.3 kDa). This chitosan exhibited antimicrobial activity against 18 bacterial strains. Further, biodegradable chitosan composite films with β-carotene were produced. Antioxidant activity of chitosan films were found to be higher than chitosan gels; and β-carotene incorporation further increased the antioxidative properties of the chitosan films. This study demonstrated that the waste of parasitic insect like H. abietis can be evaluated as a source for production of biodegradable and edible chitosan-based films for applications in food coating.