Medicinal Relevance of Bioactive Compounds in Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Red Palm Weevil) Larva
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63561/jhssr.v3i1.1140Keywords:
Insects, Bioactive compounds, Dichloromethane, Extract, Antimicrobial PropertiesAbstract
The aim of this research was to enhance human and insect relationship from ordinary nutritional delicacy to medicinal and pharmaceutical use by identifying medicinal relevant bioactive compounds in the insects. Matured and healthy R. ferrugineus larvae harvested from infested palm trees in Bayelsa State, Nigeria were washed thrice using distilled water, asphyxiated by freezing for 24 hours and blended using a Binatone BLG 450 electric blender. Ten grams of the ground sample, staple-sealed in Whatman no.4 filter paper was extracted in a Soxhlet extractor using dichloromethane as solvent. The extract obtained was concentrated and the bioactive compounds were determined using Agilent Technology manufactured Gas Chromatograph model HP 6890 and Mass Spectrometer model 5973. The highest peaks in the chromatogram of bioactive compounds were observed at retention times of 15.301 and 15.469 mins. n-Hexadecanoic acid and Octadecanoic acid has the highest percentage concentrations with values of 39.900 and 22.230 amongst the saturated fatty acid, while Octadec-9-enoic acid and (Z)-octadec-9-enoic acid was the highest unsaturated fatty acids with percentage concentration of 13.452 and 4.207. Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, was the highest amongst the ether, with percentage concentration of 1.116. while Tetracosane, 3-ethyl and Naphthalene, 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1-nonyl- were the only aliphatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon with percentage concentration of 1.422 of 0.314 respectively. The presence and antimicrobial activities of these bioactive compounds present this insect larva present this organism as a major source of natural antimicrobial compounds which may be of relevance in the pharmaceutical development of broad-spectrum anti-microbial medicine.
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