Drug Discov Ther. 2020;14(4):177-180. (DOI: 10.5582/ddt.2020.03061)

A simple artificial diet available for research of silkworm disease models

Paudel A, Panthee S, Hamamoto H, Sekimizu K

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 1:1 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.

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