The sex specific differences on nutritional composition of adult wild field cricket, Brachytrupes portentosus (Lichtenstein AAH, 1796) in Bangladesh

Abstract

Wild field crickets (Brachytrupes portentosus) were found to have a sex-based demand in the market of Bangladesh. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of sex on nutritional composition of B. portentosus. Both the male and female adult B. portentosus were found to have high nutritional value. The average weight and dry matter of female species were significantly higher compared to male B. portentosus. On the basis of dry matter contents, the crude protein (62.1 g/100 g) and crude fibre (9.4 g/100 g) was higher in male than the protein (48.8 g/100 g dry matter; DM) and fibre (8.8 g/100 g DM) content of female species. However, crude fat content was lower in male (22.1 g/100 g DM) than female (29.9 g/100 g DM) B. portentosus. Nitrogen free extract was lower in male (2.8 g/100 g) than female (7.9 g/100 g). Consequently, the energy value was higher in female (496.6 kcal) than the male (458.3 kcal) in 100 g dry matter. High performance liquid chromatography results revealed nine essential and six non-essential amino acids found in adult B. portentosus with slight variation in males and females. Females contained all essential and non-essential amino acids in higher amount than males except for alanine, phenylalanine and threonine. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry results showed that both male and female B. portentosus contained palmitic acid, stearic acid, palmitoleic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid. However, myristic acid was only found in adult female B. portentosus. The atomic absorption spectroscopy results showed higher mineral contents (Ca, Mg, K, Na, Zn and Fe) in both sexes of B. portentosus. However, male contained higher Ca and K compared to female B. portentosus while Zn and Fe were almost same in both sexes.