Characterization of chitin and chitosan synthesized from red snapper (Lutjanus sp.) scale’s waste

Abstract

Chitin and chitosan are natural biopolymer which are useful for industrial, medical and environmental field. Study about using fish scale sources especially saltwater fish is still limited. Red snapper (Lutjanus sp) is common tropical saltwater fish that known as important source of marine products, particularly in Indonesia. Correspondingly, the consumption of this species has generated significant amount of discarded scale wastes recently and hence can cause adverse impact on the environment. Utilizing the fish scale as alternative sources of chitin and chitosan can be one solution dealing with environmental problem. Therefore, this research aimed to characterize the chitin and chitosan derived from the red snapper scale wastes. Chitin were extracted by deproteination and demineralization while chitosan using deacetylation. Morphology of the chitin and chitosan were analyzed using electron dispersal spectroscopy (EDS) and scanning electron microscope (SEM), while degree of deacetylation using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Proximate analysis showed that content of moisture, ash, and nitrogen in chitin were 3.20 %, 2.40 %, 0.04 %, respectively while in chitosan were 6.14 %, 1.18 %, 0.03 % respectively. Furthermore, amount of C, O, Na, Al, P and Ca elements were obtained from chitin and chitosan samples by energy dispersed spectroscopy respectively. The degree of deacetylation for both chitin and chitosan showed high value more than 75 %. Hence, by considering the chemical properties of red snapper scales, it confirms that this species is a promising alternative source for both chitin and chitosan.