Open Access

ARTICLE

Conversion of Waste Parasitic Insect (Hylobius abietis L.) into Antioxidative, Antimicrobial and Biodegradable Films

Murat Kaya^1,*, Idris Sargin¹, Povilas Mulerčikas², Jalel Labidi³, Asier M. Salaberria³, Yavuz S. Cakmak¹, Sonata Kazlauskaitė², Demet Erdonmez⁴, Vykintas Baublys⁵

1 Department of Biotechnology and Molecular Biology, Aksaray University, 68100, Aksaray, Turkey.
2 Institute of Biology and Plant Biotechnology, Aleksandras Stulginskis University, LT-53361, Lithuania.
3 Biorefinery Processes Research Group, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Plaza Europa 1, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain.
4 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Letters, Aksaray University, 68100, Aksaray, Turkey.
5 Department of Biology, Vytautas Magnus University, LT-44404 Kaunas, Lithuania.

* Corresponding Author: Murat Kaya. Email: .

Journal of Renewable Materials 2019, 7(3), 215-226. https://doi.org/10.32604/jrm.2019.00002

Abstract

Hylobius abietis is a plant parasitic insect belonging to the order Coleoptera and which causes severe damages to coniferous forests in Northern and Eastern Europe. This current study is aimed to provide a new viewpoint into the waste of this insect by producing chitosan. Dry insect corpses consisted of 27.9% chitin and 86.2% of the chitin was converted into the chitosan. FT-IR spectra analyses confirmed the purity and the deacetylation degree of the produced chitosan (molecular weight of chitosan; 7.3 kDa). This chitosan exhibited antimicrobial activity against 18 bacterial strains. Further, biodegradable chitosan composite films with β-carotene were produced. Antioxidant activity of chitosan films were found to be higher than chitosan gels; and β-carotene incorporation further increased the antioxidative properties of the chitosan films. This study demonstrated that the waste of parasitic insect like H. abietis can be evaluated as a source for production of biodegradable and edible chitosan-based films for applications in food coating.

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