If you think that locusts are eaten only in the Middle East and in some African countries, you are greatly mistaken. Dishes from insects, in fact, we regularly consume. They are believed to be very useful. For several decades, chitin has been a part of food, cosmetics, and medicines.
Even in surgical threads and bandages for many years they add this substance or use its derivatives in their manufacture. The Japanese began to do this first. The exotic fashion was followed by the Americans and Europeans. Now, Russians have joined this substance.
Chitin: what is it
What is the substance in question? Let's figure it out. Those of us who did not skip biology classes at school, of course, are familiar with substances such as chitin. What is it, many know. This substance consists of shells of crayfish. However, not only these animals have it. Chitin is part of the outer skeleton of all types of arthropods: insects (butterflies, beetles) and crustaceans (lobsters, shrimps, crabs).
This substance, in addition, is also found in the cell wall of fungi and yeast. And algae are not plants deprived of it. Chitin is also located in their cell wall.
Chitin structures, the structure of matter
Information on the properties and structure of cellulose (the most important representative of polysaccharides, which is the main structural component of plants) is now presented in the literature in an accessible form. However, information about what the structure of chitin is is much less. Nevertheless, it is he who forms the basis of the skeletal system, which maintains the structure of the cells that form the tissues in the cuticle of insects, shells of crustaceans, the cell wall of bacteria and fungi. The fact that chitinous structures in insect and crustacean organisms is inherent in hardness is associated with the formation of a special chitin-carbonate complex. It appears as a result of the deposition of the substance of interest to us on calcium carbonate, which acts as a kind of inorganic matrix.
There is some analogy between the structure of cellulose and chitin. However, unlike the first, in chitin, the substituent of the 2nd carbon atom of the elementary unit is the acetamide group. In cellulose, the same role belongs to hydroxyl. Macromolecules of native chitin (i.e., natural) usually contain a certain number of units with primary free amino groups.
Useful properties of chitin
This substance is added in order to enhance the aroma and taste of food, to improve the appearance, or used as a preservative. There are also nutritional supplements in which it is contained. The composition of chitin is such that this substance has healing properties. The benefits of it are believed to be as follows:
- inhibits the development of cancer cells;
- protects our body from the effects of radioactive radiation;
- boosts immunity;
- prevents the development of strokes and heart attacks, as it enhances the action of drugs that thin the blood;
- fights with various inflammatory processes;
- improves digestion (reduces the acidity of gastric juice, and also promotes the growth of beneficial bifidobacteria);
- maintains low cholesterol in our blood, which helps with obesity and atherosclerosis;
- accelerates tissue repair processes.
A very useful substance is chitin. What is it and what are its healing properties, it would be nice to remember.
How common is chitin in nature
It is found in nature very often. So much so that it takes the second place among organic substances (the first belongs to cellulose). A number of scientists even believe that in the near future humanity will switch to an exclusively chitin diet. For example, Sam Hudson, a professor of polymer chemistry, recently reported that researchers are currently on the verge of discovering a “new world,” where the number of products that can be obtained from chitin will be infinite.
A bit of history
Let's talk about how it all started in relation to a substance such as chitin. What is it, learned in the 19th century. Back in 1811, Professor Henry Braconno, director of the Nancy (France) Botanical Garden, began to study the chemical composition of mushrooms. The attention of this scientist was attracted by an unusual substance. Sulfuric acid was not able to dissolve it. This was chitin. After some time, it turned out that the biopolymer isolated by a scientist from France is present not only in mushrooms. He was also found in the elytra of insects.
Chitin, whose properties were still poorly understood, in 1823 received the official name. Translated from Greek, "chitin" means "clothing." Scientists, having got rid of proteins and calcium in 1859, got a new substance from it. It was called chitosan. This substance is even more curious than its predecessor. It activates cellular activity, establishes hormonal secretion and nervous self-regulation, contributing to the functioning of the body and healthy life, as recent studies have shown. And these are just some of its useful properties. However, after all the initial discoveries, no one was interested in chitin for a hundred years, with the exception of narrow specialists.
It was only at the end of the 20th century that it was possible to find out how healthy these substances are. However, people very long ago began to eat arthropods and, accordingly, chitin in animals.
About how the ancients ate insects
Already in the book of Leviticus from the Bible there is a mention of "unclean" and "pure" insects, that is, suitable and unfit for food. To the "pure", for example, include grasshoppers and locusts. John the Baptist, being in the desert, ate wild honey and locusts. Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, mentioned that Africans catch these insects. Then they dry the locusts in the sun, pour milk on them and eat them. It is believed that even the ancient Romans did not disdain the locusts in honey. And the wives of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, sent whole trays with these insects as a gift to their spouse.
At the court of Montezuma, an Indian ruler, cooked ants were served during dinner parties. Alfred Brem, a famous traveler and zoologist, in his book entitled "Animal Life" wrote that the inhabitants of Sudan catch termites and enjoy eating them.
Modern arthropod delicacies
The gastronomic love of insects among many peoples has survived today. In the Middle East, as well as in some African countries, locusts are sold in bazaars and shops, and the menu of expensive restaurants invariably includes dishes from it. In the Philippines, there are many options for cooking crickets. In Mexico, grasshoppers and stink bugs are eaten. In Thailand, they feed on larvae of beetles, and dragonflies, and caterpillars, and crickets.
Chitin diet
It is interesting that at the end of the 19th century they came up with a diet of insects. Vincent Holt, an English naturalist and traveler, began to urge, in contrast to meat-eating and vegetarianism, entomophagy (the so-called insect feeding). Holt, not realizing that chitin and chitosan have a healthy effect on the body, wrote that as a source of nutrients, insects are much cleaner and healthier than other animals. After all, they themselves eat only plant foods.
Nutritional Information of Insects
Can I get enough of insects? This is not easy to do, but it is possible, especially if you remember the miraculous properties of chitin. The application of the diet will be effective if at least roughly calculate how much it is necessary to catch grasshoppers, dung beetles, bees and termites, so that in total their weight is 100 grams. The nutritional value of 100 grams of various insects is as follows.
- Grasshoppers will give you 20.6 proteins and 6.1 g of fat.
- Dung beetles - 17.2 g of protein and 3.8 g of fat.
- Termites - 14.2 g of protein and 2.2 g of fat.
- Bees contain 13.4 g of protein and 1.4 g of fat.
For comparison: in beef - 23.5 g of protein and 21.2 g of fat.
However, entomophagy remains, after all, exotic. Nowadays, in order to be convinced of the healing properties of chitin or chitosan, it is not at all necessary to eat scarabs and cockroaches, overcoming squeamishness. To do this, just go to the store and choose something dietary.
Research conducted in our country
A chitin-based drug was first created in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. This drug was supposed to help protect against ionizing radiation. The development of a new drug was classified by the military. In this case, the composition of this tool was hidden even from doctors. After a series of experiments on monkeys, dogs, and mice, it was proved that this drug helps them survive even after they received a lethal dose of radiation. A little later, scientists discovered that the benefits of chitin drugs are for humans. Their properties, in addition, are not limited to the radioprotective effect alone.
It was possible to find out that chitin, as well as its derivatives, are capable of combating allergies, cancerous tumors, intestinal diseases, hypertension, etc. Chitinous inclusions also contribute to an increase in the duration of action of other drugs.
Modern research
And today, research continues on chitosan and chitin. In Russia, scientists who are members of the Russian Chitin Society, created in 2000, are engaged in them. It includes not only those researchers who directly study these substances, but also representatives of other fields of science, as well as agriculture, medicine and industry. The best chitinologists in the West are awarded a special Braconnova Prize. It got its name in honor of Braconno, who was the pioneer of chitin. In our country, such a prize is named in honor of Pavel Shorygin. This academic is a chitin research enthusiast.