Determination of selected minerals and antioxidant properties of six edible aquatic insect species of Bajali region, Assam, India

Abstract

This work aims to fill the gap by determining the mineral composition and antioxidant properties of selected six commonly available edible aquatic insect species. Lethocerus indicus (Lepeletier and Serville, 1825), Diplonychus rusticus (Fabricius, 1781), Laccotrephes ruber (Linnaeus, 1764), Cybister tripunctatus (Olivier, 1795), Hydrophilus olivaceus (Fabricius, 1781) and Sympetrum sp. (Newman, 1833) were sampled from different freshwater bodies located within the Bajali region of Assam, India. Quantitative analysis of selected minerals (Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) alongside with the evaluation of antioxidant properties (total phenol and total flavonoid content) were assessed. The results showed that among all the selected insect species, L. ruber showed the maximum amount of Ca content (58.23 mg 100g^-1). H. olivaceus showed the maximum amount of Mg (80.25 mg 100g^-1), while L. indicus showed the highest Fe content (98.36 mg 100g^-1), H. olivaceus showed highest Zn (mg 100g^-1) and C. tripunctatus showed highest amount of Cu content (5.28 mg 100g^-1). Total phenolic content ranged 102 to 152.30 mg 100g^-1 and total flavonoid content ranged from 28.79 to 53.52 mg 100g^-1. The current findings highlight that the selected aquatic insects are promising resource for food and feed, contributing to improved nutrition, food security and livelihood generation in this region.