Evaluation of Nutritional Composition of the Waste Silkworm Pupae in the Development of High Value Product

Abstract

In India, sericulture is not only a tradition but also a commercially attractive newlineeconomic activity and has a close link with the socioeconomic life of the people. Over newlinethe last few decades the Indian silk industry has registered an impressive growth. The newlineage old polyvoltine hybrids have beenreplaced by superior crossbred and bivoltine newlinehybrids. Raw silk productivity has witnessed a quantum jump from mere 18,475 MT newline(2006-07) to 35,261 MT (2018-19). This increased raw silk productivity that involves newlineboiling and reeling of cocoons has generated huge reeling waste pupae as major silk newlineindustrial byproduct. It is estimated that 8 kg of reeling waste silkworm pupae in wet newlinecondition (i.e., equivalent to 2 kg of dry pupae) per kg of raw silk production is being newlinegenerated as byproduct. Thus, it can be presumed that more than 0.2 million MT of newlinesuch reeling waste pupae which was generated by the Indian silk industry as industrial newlinebyproduct not only pose a serious threat to the environment but also to the human newlinehealth and ecology. newlineThe present study aimed at finding out alternative uses of silk industrial newlinebyproducts to reduce its harmful effect on environment. The reeling waste pupae of newlinemulberry, tropical tasar and mugacollected from the silk reelers of different districts newlineof West Bengal have been investigated for proximate composition, amino acids and newlinefatty acids profile. Results revealed immense prospects of reeling waste silkworm newlinepupae for industrial use in the animal feed sector. Presence of high content of protein newlineand and#937;-3 PUFA in addition to low dietary and#937;-6/and#937;-3 ratio clearly demonstrated newlineprospects of silk industrial byproducts as a valuable source of animal feed for healthy newlinenutrition. More interestingly, the protein quality evaluated through profiling of amino newlineacids, revealed superiority of the reeling waste silkworm pupae over some edible newlineinsects and vegetable protein commonly used as poultry feed. The ratio of essential newlineviii newlineamino acids to non-essential amino acids was found in delicately balanced proportion. newline