Sampat Ghosh

Andong National University · Agriculture Science and Technology Research Institute

In a press release from the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 2019, it was reported that, currently, a mere 12 plants and 5 animal species account for approximately 75% of global food production [...]

This chapter explores the concepts of food and nutrition security, the progression of our understanding of the role and importance of nutrients, multifaceted dimensions as well as contemporary issues and challenges of food and nutrition security. The chapter outlines various successful and possible interventions to improve the situation of food qua...

Bee propolis has been touted as a natural antimicrobial agent with the potential to replace antibiotics. Numerous reports and reviews have highlighted the functionalities and applications of the natural compound. Despite much clamor for the downstream application of propolis, there remain many grounds to cover, especially in the upstream production...

Honey is a widely consumed natural product, and its entomological origin can significantly influence its market value. Therefore, traceability of the entomological origin of honey should also be considered in honey quality control protocols. Although several methods exist, such as physicochemical characterization and bioactivity profiling of honey...

Bees are important pollinators for about 70% of cultivated crops, accounting for 30% of the total food production of the world. Exposure to neonicotinoid insecticides (NNIs), a group of synthetic pesticides, seems to have a negative effect on honeybee health and has resulted colony loss in several regions of the world, especially Europe and North A...

We investigated the bacterial community of bee bread and bee pollen samples using an approach through 16 s rRNA high-throughput sequencing. The results revealed a higher bacterial diversity in bee bread than in bee pollen as depicted in taxonomic profiling, as well as diversity indices such as the Shannon diversity index (3.7 to 4.8 for bee bread a...

Nutritional stress is one of the major factors affecting the health of honey bees. Supplementing the pollen patty with microalgae enhances the protein content of the patty and therefore is supposed to improve bee’s health. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of Chlorella as a dietary supplement on the health and physiol...

Bee bread is prepared from pollen sources and salivary secretions by honey bee workers to serves the nutritional purpose of the colony members. However, the changes in nutrient composition occurring in bee bread from the pollen sources including pollen patty are poorly understood. We, therefore, examined the nutrient contents of pollen patty, used...

We explored the indigenous local knowledge associated to the use of snails by Baiga people in Baihar tehsil of Balaghat district in central India through interview with a semi-structured questionnaire. Results revealed that Baiga people widely accept snails of 3-5 morpho-groups belonging to Ampullariidae, and Viviparidae family as food. Besides, us...

In the present paper, we describe the farming system of Pomacea canaliculata, an edible freshwater snail, as it is practiced by a farmer as mini-livestock in the vicinity of Andong in Korea. We visited the snail farm several times in the summer and winter of the year and conducted interviews with the farm manager using a semi-structured questionnai...

Despite the consumption of bee brood in several parts of the world, particularly in the tropical areas, the practice has received comparatively little attention. We have reviewed all the available information on the nutrient composition and functional properties of different developmental stages of honey bee workers belonging to different species a...

We examined the contents of nutritional importance, i.e., amino acids, fatty acids and minerals of different developmental stages of drones of two honey bee subspecies, namely Apis mellifera carnica and A. m. mellifera. The results revealed that, in general, individual amino acid amounts and therefore the total protein increased along with the deve...

The semi‐organized insect industry of India primarily includes apiculture, sericulture and lac culture. In the last two decades the production of raw silk, including mulberry and “vanya silk”, has doubled. An increasing trend for the country has also been observed with regard to honey and beeswax production. India, moreover, stands in the frontline...

Edible insects have been considered as either nutritious food itemsper se, or as wholesome ingredients to various dishes and components of traditional subsistence. Protein, fat, mineral and vitamin contents in insects generally satisfy the requirements of healthy food, although there is considerable variation associated with insect species, collect...

We surveyed the local populations of Kétou and Pobè in Southeast Benin through interviews and with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire in order to understand how they currently perceive entomophagy, an age-old tradition in their communities. The study revealed that the majority of the population was familiar with the use of insects as food,...

We genetically identified three different species of hornets and analyzed the nutrient compositions of their edible brood. Samples were collected from a commercial production unit in Shizong province of China and from forests near Andong City in Korea. The species were identified as Vespa velutina, V. mandarinia, and V. basalis from China and V. ve...

Background Pollen is an important source of protein and lipids for many animals including honey bees. In order to understand the foraging behaviour of honey bee colonies and preference among the available floral resources, pollen collections from three experimental healthy colonies of honey bees were analysed in the month of June. Results The amou...

Ecosystem services are often undervalued, largely because it remains outside of the market economy, we do not require monetary paying for these services. However, without this ecosystem service, not only human but also the ecology and environment in totality will be imbalanced. In this paper, we attempt to understand the roles of honey bee in the c...

Pollen patties are generally supplied to augment the nourishment of honey bee or bumblebee colonies during late winter or early spring. In the present study, we examined nutrient content of bee collected pollen and pollen patties prepared from those pollens in order to understand the chemical compositional change of pollen to pollen patty and figur...

We compared nutrient compositions of honey bee (Apis mellifera) drones of different developmental stages from two different populations—the Italian honey bee reared in Korea and Buckfast bees from Denmark. Analyses included amino acid, fatty acid, and mineral content as well as evaluations of antioxidant properties and haemolysis activities. The co...

A survey involving 329 randomly selected respondents (172 male; 157 female) from Korea and 203 (109 male; 94 female) from Ethiopia has revealed that significantly fewer of the Ethiopian respondents were prepared to accept insects as human food than Koreans did. Vertical transmission of entomophagic knowledge was important for Koreans, but of neglig...

We assessed nutrients composition of the Asian honeybee Apis cerana and giant honeybee Apis dorsata. Abundances of individual amino acids and thus their total amounts were found to be considerably higher in A. cerana pupae than those of A. dorsata pupae. The immature developmental stages of honey bees contained higher amounts of fat than the adults...

Many different entomophagous communities of the world consume termites particularly in time of insect’s swarming. We analysed the nutritional composition of the termites that are being used as food and found that protein and fatty acid contents differed between adult and nymphal stages. All the tested amino acids satisfied the level of a nearly ide...

Edible silkworm pupae, known in Korea as "beondaegi" and seen as a valuable byproduct of the silk industry have been part of the local food spectrum for centuries. Edible crickets on the other hand, represented in Korea primarily by the species Gryllus bimaculatus and Teleogryllus emma as our research has shown, are relative newcomers and have been...

Globalization of the human diet has resulted in a shrinkage of the number of food crops. Most of the traditional native staples have been replaced with a few commercial crops of often less nutritional merit. As a result, the burden of non-communicable disorders has increased and cases of so-called 'hidden hunger' have become more prevalent. In this...

Entomophagous habits have undoubtedly accompanied the evolution of humankind from its beginnings. With few exceptions, insects are generally non-toxic, nutritious, abundant and easy to collect. About 2000 species of insects are known to be consumed by different ethnic groups. We explored on what basis insect species might be selected as desirable b...

Crop production for human food and nutritional security is largely dependent on pollination process especially by insects. We assessed the role of pollination in connection with micronutrient supply from edible crops to the Korean population. The study included 42 predominant crop types of varying pollinator dependence. A higher pollinator dependen...

Amino acids, fatty acids and minerals were investigated in the farmed freshwater snail Pomacea canaliculata (Ampullariidae) to understand its nutritional potential as alternative livestock. Snail samples with removed gut content were collected from a local snail farm in the Republic of Korea. Almost all the essential amino acids present in the snai...

Although the concept and implementation of food fortification are not novel in India, still since Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) introduced it mandatory, the paradigm of food fortification has been broadened. In the current regulation, common staple foods such as wheat flour, rice, edible oil, milk in addition to salt, and Van...

The nutritional potential of five preferred insect species used as food and feed in Korea, Allomyrina dichotoma (Coleoptera: Dynastidae), Protaetia brevitarsis (Coleoptera: Cetoniidae), Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), Teleogryllus emma (Orthoptera: Gryllidae), and Gryllus bimaculatus (Ortoptera: Gryllidae), was accessed. Most of these...

Bee-collected pollens have gained attention as natural dietary supplement for human nutrition over the honeybee feed, and become important commercial hive products for beekeepers. Oak trees, Quercus sp. (Family: Fagaceae) and hardy kiwi, Actinidia arguta (Family: Actinidiaceae) are important pollen sources for honey bees. During collection and stor...

Wise utilization of known food resources could be one major tool to keep parity with the increasing population and nutriment demand. In many parts of India not unlike many other regions of the world consumption of globe snails is widespread. Although snail farming is not at all a novel entrant in the animal husbandry field, it is still far from bei...

The nutritional potential of Oecophylla smaragdina and Odontotermes sp., two common species of insects used as food by tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh and elsewhere in India was assessed. O. smaragdina and Odontotermes sp. contained 55.28 and 33.67% protein, 14.99 and 50.93% fat, 19.84 and 6.30% fibre, 2.59 and 3.01% ash and 7.30 and 6.09% carbo...

Proximate nutrient compositions of dry larvae, pupae and adults of worker Apis mellifera ligustica were determined. Chemical analyses of the samples were carried out and the amounts of 16 amino acids, 10 fatty acids and 12 metals were measured and compared with their occurrences in conventional foods of animal and plant origin. Our results show tha...

Recent declination of pollinators especially honeybee population in different geographical locations could threaten agricultural productivity leading to food insecurity. In order to examine the impact of the ‘pollinator crisis’, we hypothesized that the level of pollinator-dependence among the crops would be a significant factor to influence the cr...

An analytical method for the quantification of six common tetracyclines and derivatives thereof including tetracycline, 4-epitetracycline, 4-epioxytetracycline, oxytetracycline, 4-epichlortetracycline, chlortetracycline and doxycycline in honey as been validated. The method involved sample preparation in Na2EDTA- McIlvaine buffer, solid phase extra...

The present study was carried out to estimate the level of nutritionally beneficial minerals viz. calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) as well as four potential toxic heavy metals namely nickel (Ni), arsenic (As), lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in root of Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (Fabaceae) and stem o...

The nutritional potential of short-horned grasshopper, Chondacris rosea (Acrididae) and mole cricket, Brachytrupes orientalis (Gryllidae), two common species of Orthoptera used as food by tribal people of Arunachal Pradesh (NE India), was assessed. Crosea and B. orientalis contain 68.88 and 65.74% crude protein, 7.88 and 6.33% fat, 12.38 and 8.75%...

A consolidated list of edible insects used in the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh (N.E. India) by Wangcho (Wancho) and Nocte tribes of the Tirap District and the Shingpo, Tangsa, Deori and Chakma of the Changlang District has been prepared. The list is based on thorough, semi-structured field-interviews with 20 informants of each tribal group. At...

We identified nutritionally relevant fatty acids and macro- and micronutrient content in Aspongopus nepalensis Westwood 1837 (Hemiptera), an insect used as food by the ethnic people of Arunachal Pradesh (North East India). Regarding macronutrients, crude lipids made up 38.35 %, fibre 33.47 %, protein 10.6 %, moisture 41.9 %, and ash 2.1 %. Lipid am...

Arunachal Pradesh, the easternmost part of India, is endowed with diverse natural resources and inhabited by a variety of ethnic groups that have developed skills to exploit the biotic resources of the region for food and medicines. Information on animals and animal parts as components of folk remedies used by local healers and village headmen of t...

We prepared a consolidated list of edible and therapeutic insects used in Arunachal Pradesh (N.E. India) by two tribal societies (i.e., the Nyishi of East Kameng and the Galo of West Siang). The list is based on thorough, semi-structured field-interviews with 20 informants of each tribal group. At least 81 species of local insects, belonging to 26...