Abstract:

The content of basic nutrients, amino acids and mineral elements in 4 kinds of insect teas, including Herculia glaucinalis-Ampelopsis cantoniensis insect tea, H. glaucinalis-A. grossedentata insect tea, Hydrillodes repugnalis-Platycarya strobilacea Sieb. et Zucc insect tea and H. glaucinalis-Houttuynia cordata Thunb. insect tea, were detected and analyzed. The results showed that 4 kinds of insect teas contained a variety of nutrient compositions, but there were certain differences. The contents of polyphenol, flavonoid, total sugar, protein, crude fiber and crude fat in 4 kinds of insect teas were 17.17-255.64 μmol/g, 2.46-27.18 mg/g, 0.64%-2.52%, 0.68%-1.27%, 13.50%-18.34%, and 0.17%-9.85%, respectively. The contents of polyphenols and flavonoid were highest in the A. cantoniensis insect tea. There were 17 common amino acids in 4 kinds of insect tea, and the amino acid content was 70.16-81.46 mg/g. In particular, the contents of amino acid such as aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine and leucine were high. The proportion of total essential amino acids in P. strobilacea insect tea was 37.65%, which was close to the requirements of the ideal model of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO)/World Health Organization(WHO). The ratio of essential amino acids to non-essential amino acids reaches 60.39%, which meets the requirements of the ideal model of FAO and WHO. The 4 kinds of insect tea were rich in Ca, P, Mg, K and Mn and other mineral elements required by the human body. The contents of K, Mg in H. cordata insect tea were as high as 21.91 and 3.93 mg/g, respectively. In addition, A. grossedentata insect tea and H. cordata insect tea contained the essential microelement Se in human body.

Key words: insect tea, nutritional components, analysis, evaluation