A simple artificial diet available for research of silkworm disease models.

ABSTRACT

This study was performed with the aim of making a very simple recipe of silkworm diet for research purposes, especially screening of drug candidates. We prepared a diet containing mulberry leaves powder and soybean flour at different ratios, fed them to fifth instar silkworm larvae, and observed their growth. We selected the diet with 11 ratio of mulberry powder and soybean flour, named MS-11, and used for further experiments. MS-11 diet was available for oral administration of drugs in silkworm hyperglycemic model and infection model. The availability of a simple artificial diet for experiments that require feeding silkworms will enhance the use of silkworms for biological, biotechnological, and pharmacological researches.