Role of insect farming as a sustainable approach for global food security and its therapeutic applications

Across all regions, in light of climate change and other global crises, accelerating the food systems transformation necessitates numerous adjustments at all levels. Insect culturing has drawn attention for its potential economic benefits and offers one of the viable approaches to overcome the challenges of global food insecurity and the requirement for medicines. Millions of people around the world depend on insects as an alternate food source. The aim of the current work was to explore the new source of functional food for global food insecurity and applications of bioactive compounds present in insects and their product in the food and pharmaceutical industry. Farmers, producers of insect products, researchers, and policymakers can all benefit from the insights of this work. Insects are not only a source of animal and human food, but they also have nutritional properties due to the presence of high concentrations of bioactive compounds like phenolics, terpenoids, alcohols, and their derivatives. These contain natural bioactive compounds that may be used as a source of therapeutics against major diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s disease, anti-HIV, gastric ulcer, Alzheimer’s disease, as well as other acute and chronic non-communicable diseases. Insects and their products, such as honey, royal jelly, and bee venom, have become known for their healing and nutritional value. Hence, insect farming serves as a high-efficiency and low-footprint solution for global food security, acting as entomoceuticals, offering a most prominent source of bioactive compounds for advanced therapeutic applications.