Production of High Value Biomolecules from Pupae of Silkworm
(Philosamia ricini) (Phase 3)

Insects are widely consumed for a long time in Thailand.  But they have not been developed to be a variety of processed foods and to become a high value product.  Eri silkworm (Philosamia ricini) is a wild silkworm cultivated by Thai local farmers in the northeast of Thailand. It provides Eri silk fabric which is important to the textile industries. The production of Eri silk fabric in Thailand, however, generates a large amount of Eri silkworm pupae as a by-product which has not been fully commercialized yet. This becomes a problem for the local farmers and textile producers in Eri silkworm production and trading industries. Therefore, this research project is to utilize the Eri silkworm pupae and make its more valuable by isolation of high value biochemicals; pupae oil, proteins, chitosan and bioactive peptides, from the Eri silkworm pupae. These biochemicals from the pupae would be applied to the food, food supplementary, cosmetics, medical and pharmaceutical industries.