Edible insects: As traditional medicine for human wellness

Abstract

Insects are the largest group of organisms of faunal biodiversity. Among those, several are recognize for human consumptions by different communities of the world. Besides human consumption these insects are traditionally use as medicine and for therapeutic purpose. There are numerous insects which are utilized as a therapeutic component by the local traditional healers around the world. Considering this significance the present review emphasize on the medicinal importance and its therapeutic properties of entomophagy species. The authors provide an overview traditionally therapeutic utilization of entomophagy species in the World and Northeast India scenarios. Entomotherapy practice has been reported to cure various kind of ailment. This traditional therapeutic knowledge can provide a huge contribution in modern medicine by analyzing the therapeutic component of the medicinally valued insects. Moreover, insect's reproduction is faster than plants and can reproduce more in numbers, thus sustainable harvesting of the desire species can be maintained during short duration. Additionally, the present review highlight the traditional social believes of the insects by the society.

Keywords

• Entomophagy
• Entomotherapy
• Social believe
• Traditional knowledge