Studies On The Nutritive And Health Care Value Of White Wax Scale (Ericerus Pela Chavannes) And Evaluation Of Its Functional Factors

A series of research and evaluation on white wax scale has been done in this dissertation,which include nutritious value, food safety, immunomodulation, anti-mutation, anti-fatigue, oxygen lack tolerance, restricting tumor growth and comprehensive utilization research. The study results have shown that white wax contains protein, human necessary amino acids, elements and vitamins. This insect also contains polysaccharide, chitin, flavone and lecithin. It has health care functions of immunomodulation, anti-mutation, anti-fatigue and restricting tumor growth. Therefore it could be developed as health care food. The main research results are as follow. 1. The nutritious value of white wax scale: White wax scale female body has rich protein, 44.67% in eggs and 53.57% in egg bags. The amino acids amount in the eggs is abundant, more than 30%. The amount of 7 kinds human necessary amino acids is 12.38% which is 37.99% of total amino acids. The amino acids amount in the whole eggs and bags is 50.53%, The amount of 8 kinds human necessary amino acids is 17.90% covered 37.99% of total amino acids. The fatty content in the eggs which is 11.8%, is low. There are some elements in the eggs which are beneficial to human health, such as calcium, iron and zinc and others. Vitamins can be found in the insect. This insect also contains 7% polysaccharide, 2% chitin, 9.22% flavone and lecithin which are functional factors of health care. Comparing the other food sources from animals and plants, white wax scale has notable character that it is rich on protein, human necessary amino acids, elements and vitamins. White wax scale is good protein resource according to the standard of UN. 2. Review on the edible safety of white wax scale: According to the state standard"Procedures for toxicological assessment on food safety", several safety tests have been proceeded. They are acute toxicity tests on mice and rats(LD50), inherited toxicity(including Ames test, bone marrow micro-nucleoli test in mice, sperms deformation test in mice), traditional teratogenesis test in rats, 30 days feeding test in rats. The test results have shown that white wax scale is non-toxic(LD50>10g/Kg), non-mutagenic action, non-teratogenic effect and safety for eating. 3. Health care function tests: Immunomodulation test, anti-mutation test, anti-fatigue test and oxygen lack tolerance test have been done using white wax scale, according to the regulations for health care food. White wax scale could increase the humoral immunity ability for specific antigen, increase IgM content of serum and stimulate lymphocyte transformation and propagation in mice. So white wax scale has remarkable immunoresponse regulate function. The result of bone marrow micro-nucleoli test in mice has shown that white wax scale has anti-mutation function. This insect also has some anti-fatigue effect. Meanwhile the scale has no affect on the body weight of mice. The function factors (active components)of immunomodulation could be protein, chitin, polysaccharide, lecithin. The function factors of anti-mutation could be chitin, polysaccharide, vitaminB, lecithin and flavone. The function factors of anti-fatigue could be protein and polysaccharide. 4. Polysacchride isolating from white wax scale and inhibiting tumor growth test: The isolating rate of crude polysacchride is about 7%. In the crude polysaccharide, the sugar content is 22.1% as glucose. The nitrogen content is 6.64%. The crude polysaccharide is composed of glucose, galactose and fructose in molar ratio of 5:21:1. The polysacchride isolating from white wax scale is polysaccharide-protein complex. The polysacchride isolating from white wax scale has notable effect on restricting the growth of Sarcoma 180 in mice. In the high dose groups, both oral route (200mg/Kg)and celiac injection (100mg/Kg), inhibiting tumor rates are higher then 50%.The restricting rates are positive correlation with dosage in celiac injection situation. This polysaccharide has no cytotoxic action on tumor cell(sHL60, A549, SDC-7901, Bel-7402)in vitro. The research results have suggested that polysacchride isolating from white wax scale is through immunomodulation to inhibiting tumor growth.There are no reports on polysacchride isolating from insects. The research has shown that crude polysaccharide is rich in white wax scale body and has anticancer effect, which has significance for insect utilization and medicinal insect development. 5. Comprehensive utilization of white wax scale: Whole white wax scale eggs and bags could be used as health care food. Meanwhile polysacchride and chitin can be isolated from the insect. Protein powder and liquid also can be made from it. That increases the value of omprehensive utilization of white wax scale.