因此，尼日利亚联邦科技大学生物化学系的Oibiokpa Florence Inje、Akanya Helmina Olufunmilayo、Jigam Ali Audu等人的研究目的是确定蛾毛虫、白蚁、蟋蟀和蚱蜢的蛋白质质量以及补充这些昆虫的饮食对大鼠的生化和血液学指标的影响。研究者采用标准分析方法来测定昆虫的氨基酸组成。使用昆虫和酪蛋白以10％蛋白质为基础来配制五种等氮和等热量饮食，并将无氮饮食为对照组。把36只断奶白化病幼年大鼠（21～28天龄）分成6组，随意喂养饮食28天。记录每周体重增加和每日采食量，收集尿液和粪便用于氮测定。使用凯式测氮法及获得的数据用来计算各类蛋白质质量指数。喂养试验结束后，处死大鼠，收集血液样本并切除器官，用于各种数据分析。
结果发现与其他昆虫蛋白质相比，蟋蟀具有最高的氨基酸评分（0.91）、蛋白质效率（1.78）、净蛋白质率（3.04）、生物学价值（93.02％）和蛋白质消化率校正为氨基酸分数（0.73）。和那些用酪蛋白和基础日粮喂养的（大鼠相比），采用昆虫饮食补充喂养的大鼠的肝脏、脾、肺、心脏的器官体重比没有显着差异（P＞0.05）。和那些用酪蛋白喂养的（大鼠相比），喂食蟋蟀的大鼠血清总蛋白浓度没有显着差异（P＞0.05），而喂食蟋蟀的大鼠血清LDL胆固醇浓度最低。该研究发现选定的昆虫营养丰富、食用安全，可能会减轻食虫的恐惧，从而弱化对于传统动物蛋白的过度依赖。
文章摘要
ABSTRACT
Protein quality of four indigenous edible insect species in Nigeria
Oibiokpa Florence Inje ?, Akanya Helmina Olufunmilayo, Jigam Ali Audu,
Abubakar Abubakar Ndaman, Egwim Evans Chidi
Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Technology, P.M.B 65, Minna, Nigeria
Abstract
Food security is a serious concern particularly for developing countries. To overcome hunger and malnutrition there is a need for increased research towards finding alternative and cheaper sources of nutrients.Insects have been reported to be rich in protein and could be alternative sources of protein. This work was therefore designed to determine the protein quality of moth caterpillar, termite, cricket and grasshopper and the effects of diets supplemented with these insects on some biochemical and haematological indices of rats. The amino acid compositions of the insects were determined using standard analytical methods. Five iso-nitrogenous and isocaloric diets were formulated on a 10% protein basis with the insects and casein. A Nitrogen free diet was also formulated as control. Thirty six (36) young weanling albino rats (21–28 days old) were divided into 6 groups and fed with the diets ad libitum for 28 days. Their weekly weight gain and daily feed intake were recorded, urine and faeces were collected for nitrogen determination using Kjedahl method and the data obtained used to calculate the various protein quality indices. After the feeding trial periods, the rats were sacrificed, blood samples collected and organs excised for various analyses. Cricket was found to have the highest amino acid score (0.91), protein efficiency ratio (1.78), net protein ratio (3.04) biological value (93.02%) and protein digestibility corrected for amino acid score (0.73) as compared to other insect proteins analysed. The organ body weight ratios of the liver, spleen, lung and heart of rats placed on the insect supplemented diets were not significantly different(p > 0.05) from those fed with casein and basal diets. Serum total protein concentrations in rats fed withcricket diet were not significantly different (p > 0.05) from those fed casein diet while serum LDL cholesterolconcentration was lowest in rats fed cricket diet. The finding in this work that the selected insectsare nutritious and safe for consumption may alleviate the fear of entomophagy thereby reducing theoverdependence on conventional animal proteins.
