Indian scientists have figured out the compounds in the middle gut of cockroaches. Why? Because it's more nutritious than cow milk and could be the key to feeding the ever growing population of the world.

Reuters

The study was published in IUCrJ, journal of the International Union of Crystallography. Cockroaches don't actually produce milk but a type of the species, Diploptera punctate that gives birth to live young, has been shown to release a type of milk that contains protein to feed its babies. These protein crystals, scientists found, contains three time the amount of energy compared to the same amount of buffalo milk.

Since milking cockroaches isn't very feasible, an international team of scientists headed by researchers from the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in India decided to map out the genes that produce these protein crystals in order to figure out if they can be replicated in the lab, reported Science Alert.

Researcher Sanchari Banerjee said: "The crystals are like a complete food – they have proteins, fats and sugars. If you look into the protein sequences, they have all the essential amino acids".

