|
|
Comparison of nutritional values of different edible insect species
Maňhal, Daniel ; Kouřimská, Lenka (advisor) ; Kulma, Martin (referee)
The worlds limited agricultural resources will soon no longer be able to continue to support its ever growing population. One way to alleviate this problem is to integrate insects into the human diet, which is an increasingly common practice in Asia, Africa and South America. This practice has proven to be beneficial in a number of ways. Insects have better feed-conversion efficiency, transforming organic matter into larger amount of edible body mass than traditional livestock. Comparing to the livestock, insects have much smaller ecological impact on the environment. On the other hand, allergic reactions to toxins produced by some insects represent a potential risk of entomophagy. Nutritional values of insects depend on many factors, such as type of insect, its developmental stage, sex, and consumed feed. Generally, insects are a rich source of nutrients comparable to or even higher than traditional sources of meat.
Nutritional values of farm raised field crickets (Gryllus assimilis), originating from the Czech Republic, were analyzed in the experimental section of this thesis. Specifically, contents of dry matter, crude protein, fat and fatty acid profile were the main focus. The dry matter content was determined using an infrared technique. The crude protein content was measured using the Kjeldahl method. The Soxhlet method was applied for fat extraction. Extracted fat was determined gravimetric. Using gas chromatography, a lipid profile was obtained. Measured values were compared to those found in the literature. Emphasis was put on the comparison with other types of potentially edible insects and on the nutritional values of wild and farmed insects. Finally, these nutritional values were compared to the corresponding nutritional values of conventional meat to illustrate the benefits of entomophagy.
The analyzes showed that insect originating from the Czech Republic had very similar qualitative composition to species from different geographical regions and its nutritional value is fully competitive with conventional meat.
|
|
|
The status of Large Blues Phengaris population on the locality Labišťata near Přelouč
Myšková, Nikola ; Vrabec, Vladimír (advisor) ; Kulma, Martin (referee)
In 2015, two butterfly species Phengaris teleius and Phengaris nausithous from the family Lycaenidae (Lycaenidae) were studied to obtain the basic knowledge of their occurrences in the Labišťata area, Přelouč. The hypothesis was formulated: The population size of Phengaris butterflies at Labišťata area is same as the population of the nearly locality Slavíkovy ostrovy. To obtain required data the capture - recapture method was used. Subsequently, the population sizes of investigated species were estimated using MARK Sowtware.
At all fields of Labišťata area, there were totally identified 139 individuals of P. teleius (Bergsträsser, 1779) and 135 individuals of P. nausithous (Bergsträsser, 1779). The population estimations were then calculated as 224 resp 294 butterflies. In comparison with Slavíkovy ostrovy (with the estimated population 5 105 individuals of P. teleius and 1 045 individuals of P.nausithous), the populations of both species at studied locality were significantly lower. Therefore, we disapproved the hypothesis.
|
|
|
Entmophagy - insects as food of the future
Pondělíčková, Barbara ; Hlava, Jakub (advisor) ; Kulma, Martin (referee)
This bachelor thesis creates a summary of contemporary czech and the world's entomophagy. It contains knowledge about utilising insect as a source of food for people in
a form of literature research. This includes the history as well as contemporary reputation of entomophagy in the eyes of the public. The research part also describes the most notable species of insects utilised for consumtion today including a summary of the basic nutrition data. The following part of this paper studies farming insects distined for consumption and of course, safety concerns coming with consuming insects are also mentioned. In the end of the research part there is a list of several examples of different dishes made from insect.
In the practical part of this paper a questionnaire was created with the goal of mapping a describing the czech public's awareness of insect consumption the possibilities of its spreading. This questionnaire was realised particularly electronic (over the internet), additionally by personal questioning with the purpose of covering bigger variety of answers, especially to get answers from different age groups of the respondents. The recieved answers were analysed and the results were processed into graphs for easier reading.
|
guest ::
