The custom and culture of entomophagy in China has been preserved since ancient times, with a history going back at least 3,000 years. Presently, more than 300 species of insects with edible value have been taxonomically classified in China. These insect species belong to the orders Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera, Hemiptera, Isoptera, Odonata, Megaloptera, Ephemeroptera, Diptera and Blattaria, with a majority of these species belonging to Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. The most common include silkworm, tussah, Italian honeybee, oriental honeybee, mealworm, wasps, bamboo worm, locust, cicada, diving beetle and black ant. Since 2010, the number of patent applications for these edible insects has increased rapidly, indicating that the development and utilisation of edible insects in China is ongoing. The use of common edible insects primarily involves direct consumption of the insect body. In addition to fresh insects, frozen, canned and dried insects are also sold on the market. Derived extract products, such as protein, oil, chitin and insect health foods remain in the early research and experiment stages, and the current production scale is small. Bees, silkworm, mealworm and oriental migratory locust come from artificial farming, as farming techniques for these insects are well-developed. Although wasps, sand-crawling insects, bean hawkmoths and bamboo worms have been artificially cultured, the necessary technologies are underdeveloped. The majority of edible insects generally accepted by the public are still primarily collected from nature. In view of the current situation of utilisation, some suggestions have been put forward to strengthen the investigation and evaluation of edible insect resources, and research to focus on utilisation methods and artificial rearing technology in China.

Insects are the largest biological group on the earth, characterized by high biodiversity, easy rearing, and large populations. The utilization of insects in China has a long history and some insect species have contributed to the formation of characteristic industries. Insect products, such as silk and honey, are already familiar to the public; however, many beneficial insects and their products are not well known to most people, for example, lac insect and lac, gall aphid and Chinese gallnut, and insect wax. A new industry featuring the utilization and industrialization of insects has been rising in China. Chemically, insect products are used as raw materials; agriculturally, insects are utilized to pollinate crops for better yield; natural enemy insects have been reared to control pests; insect protein may be used for human food or animal feed; medicinally, chemical compounds may be extracted from insects as active ingredients for pharmaceutical usage; and ornamental butterfly has been applied in travel sightseeing. Insects' new purpose and function will be exploited as they gain recognition for their resources. This paper reviews insect industrialization in China and discusses the prospect of insect commerce in the future.

Edible insects have great potential to be human food; among them, aquatic insects have unique characteristics and deserve special attention. Before consuming these insects, the nutrition and food safety should always be considered. In this review, we summarized the species diversity, nutrition composition, and food safety of edible aquatic insects, and also compared their distinguished characteristics with those of terrestrial insects. Generally, in contrast with the role of plant feeders that most terrestrial edible insect species play, most aquatic edible insects are carnivorous animals. Besides the differences in physiology and metabolism, there are differences in fat, fatty acid, limiting/flavor amino acid, and mineral element contents between terrestrial and aquatic insects. Furthermore, heavy metal, pesticide residue, and uric acid composition, concerning food safety, are also discussed. Combined with the nutritional characteristics of aquatic insects, it is not recommended to eat the wild resources on a large scale. For the aquatic insects with large consumption, it is better to realize the standardized cultivation before they can be safely eaten.

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD), an age-related neurodegenerative disorder and a serious public health concern, is mainly caused by β-amyloid (Aβ)-induced toxicity. Currently, a limited number of drugs are effective against AD, and only a few are used for its treatment. According to traditional Chinese medicine, white wax is mainly composed of policosanol, hexacosanol, and octacosanol. Policosanol has been shown to reduce lipid levels in blood and alleviate the symptoms associated with diabetic complications and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease and AD. However, the efficacy of policosanol depends on the purity and composition of the preparation, and the therapeutic efficacy of policosanol derived from insect wax (PIW) in AD is unknown. Methods: Here, we identified the main components of PIW and investigated the effects of PIW on Aβ-induced toxicity and life-span in a transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans model of AD, CL4176. Furthermore, we estimated the expression of amyloid precursor-like protein (apl-1) and the genes involved in various pathways associated with longevity and alleviation of AD-related symptoms in PIW-fed CL4176. Results: PIW mainly consists of tetracosanol, hexacosanol, octacosanol, and triacontanol; it could decrease the Aβ-induced paralysis rate from 86.87 to 66.97% (P < 0.01) and extend the life-span from 6.2 d to 7.8 d (P < 0.001) in CL4176 worms. Furthermore, PIW downregulated apl-1, a gene known to be associated with the levels of Aβ deposits in C. elegans. Additionally, our results showed that PIW modulated the expression of genes associated with longevity-related pathways such as heat shock response, anti-oxidative stress, and glutamine cysteine synthetase. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that PIW may be a potential therapeutic agent for the prevention and treatment of AD. However, its effects on murine models and patients with AD need to be explored further.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of processing methods on inhibiting lipid oxidation of deep fried crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) during storage. Four antioxidants and two packaging methods were used. The effects of different antioxidants and packaging methods on composition of fatty acids, contents of free fatty acids (FFA), peroxide value (PV), and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARSs) value of deep fried Gryllus bimaculatus were analyzed during 150 days of storage. The composition of fatty acids changed and the content of FFA, PV, and TBARs value also increased with the extension of storage time, indicating that the lipid oxidation dominated by oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids could occur in deep fried Gryllus bimaculatus during storage. In the same storage period, the total content of FFA, PV, and TBARs value of samples treated with antioxidants and vacuum-filling nitrogen packaging were lower than those of controls, suggesting that antioxidants and vacuum-filling nitrogen packaging have noticeable effects on inhibiting lipid oxidation and improving the quality of deep fried crickets, and dibutyl hydroxyl toluene (BHT) was found as the most effective antioxidant in this study. The results may provide a reliable reference for processing of deep fried edible insects.