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Review
. 2020 Jun 29;10(7):976.
doi: 10.3390/biom10070976.

Bioactive Compounds from Hermetia Illucens Larvae as Natural Ingredients for Cosmetic Application

Cíntia Almeida  1 , Patrícia Rijo  1 , Catarina Rosado  1
Affiliations
Review

Bioactive Compounds from Hermetia Illucens Larvae as Natural Ingredients for Cosmetic Application

Cíntia Almeida et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Due to the sustainable organic matter bioconversion process used as substrate for its development, the Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus) larvae biomass is considered a source of compounds with high aggregate value and quite a promising market. The materials that can be extracted from H. illucens larvae have opened the door to a diverse new field of ingredients, mainly for the feed and food industry, but also with potential applicability in cosmetics. In this review we succinctly describe the larval development and rearing cycle, the main compounds identified from different types of extractions, their bioactivities and focus on possible applications in cosmetic products. A search was made in the databases PubMed, ScienceDirect and Web of Science with the terms 'Hermetia illucens', 'bioactives', 'biochemical composition' and 'cosmetics ingredients', which included 71 articles published since 1994.

Keywords: Hermetia illucens larvae; bioactives; biomass composition; cosmetic applications..

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no financial or personal relationship that can be understood as representing a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of materials obtained from Hermitia illucens larvae and potential industrial applications.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Development process of H. illucens, from eggs to the larvae stage. Source: Adapted from Caruso et al. [8].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Composition of main fatty acids in the H. illucens larvae (percentage of oil content) [14,24,53,54,55].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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