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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Bioprocess Engineering
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1449233

Solid-State Fermentation of Hemp Waste: Enhancing the performance of Hermetia illucens larvae and altering the composition of hemp secondary metabolites

Provisionally accepted
Wael Yakti Wael Yakti *Nadja Förster Nadja Förster Marcus Müller Marcus Müller Sebastian Beck Sebastian Beck Simon Schulz Simon Schulz Inga Mewis Inga Mewis Christian Ulrichs Christian Ulrichs
  • Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Solid-state fermentation (SSF) can increase the nutritional quality of low value substrates for insects.In this study SSF using different fungal species was applied on a hemp waste substrate, and the fermentation was followed by a black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) feeding experiment during which 300 larvae were grown on 200g (20.1% DM) substrate for 7 to 9 days depending on the treatment. Besides assessing the BSFL performance parameters the presence of hemp cannabinoids, flavonoids, and terpenes was assessed through the process and compared among the treatments. The results show that BSFL growth parameters varied depending on the fungal species used. Fermenting the substrate with Ganoderma lucidum can lead to an increase in the BSFL dry yield (4.54g) compared to the untreated substrate (2.86g), likely due to enhancing carbon accessibility in the substrate. SSF using Trichoderma reesei increased the cannabidiol and ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol mass fractions in the substrate, and consequently in the produced BSFL biomass, while decreasing the amounts of acidic cannabinoids.Both Hypsizygus ulmarius and Pleurotus ostreatus effectively removed cannabinoids from the substrate. This study confirms that pre-treating hemp wastes via SSF can enhance their nutritional value and/or reduce bioactive secondary metabolites, with different fungal species offering different and complementary performances in achieving different biotechnological goals.

    Keywords: Black soldier fly, Cannabis, plant secondary metabolites, solid-state fermentation, Insect protein

    Received: 14 Jun 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Yakti, Förster, Müller, Beck, Schulz, Mewis and Ulrichs. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wael Yakti, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.