Nutritional value of shea caterpillar (Cirina butyspermii Vuillet) sold at the market of Korhogo (Côte d'Ivoire)

“” JBES welcome all of you to submit your research paper for publication in the field of Environmental sciences, Biodiversity etc. Please submit your manuscripts via Online submission panel .“”

Cirina butirospermii caterpillar is much appreciated by the population of Korhogo. But this population is unaware of its nutritional value. Thus, a study was carried out in order to know the nutritional characteristics of this caterpillar. Analyzes were carried out using appropriate methods. So, the moisture and ash levels were determined using the AOAC method. Calcium was assayed using the colorimetric method of Gindler and King using blue of thymol. Sodium and potassium were determined by the flame photometry using Pinta technique. Total sugars were extracted according to Martinez et al. (2000) and assayed according to Dubois et al. (1956) using phenol and concentrated sulfuric acid. The crude proteins were assayed according to BIPEA (1976) using Kjeldhal. The energy value corresponding to the available energy is calculated using the specific coefficients of Atwater and Benedict (1902) for proteins, lipids and carbohydrates. Cirina butyrospermii flour included 55.41% of crude protein, 28.71% of fat and 4.89% of ash. Ash contained minerals such as calcium, sodium, potassium, iron, magnesium and zinc. The moisture content is 7.02%. Total sugar content of this flour was 3.07%. There were 17 amino acids, of which, lysine, glutamic acid, glycine, aspartic acid, valine and arginine were predominant. Fatty acid profile was also determined. Stearic acid (39.53%) and linolenic acid (23.89%) were the most abundant fatty acids. All these properties show that the caterpillar Cirina butyrospermii is a food of great nutritional value. These properties also make it possible to predict its use in the food and pharmaceutical fields.

Journal of Biodiversity and Environmental Sciences-JBES is an open-access scholarly research journal, published by International Network for Natural Sciences-INNSPUB. JBES published original scientific articles in different field of Environmental Sciences and Biodiversity. JBES published 2 Volume and 12 issue per calendar year.