Recovery of chitin and chitosan from shrimp waste with microwave technique and versatile application

Vanessa Pimentel Santos,Luciana De Oliveira Franco,Galba Maria Campos-Takaki,Daniele Souza,Patrícia Maia,Rosileide Fontenele Silva Andrade,Laryssa Farias,Daylin Rubio Ribaux,Nathália De Sá Alencar

doi:10.1590/1808-1657000982018

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In this study, chitin and chitosan were extracted from Litopenaeus vannamei waste using chemical and microwave methods. Shrimp waste was cleaned, dried and ground sieved to 16, 32 and 60 mesh, and the samples were depigmented, demineralized, and deproteinized. Then, the chitin was submitted to a deacetylation process by 45% NaOH solution under microwave irradiation at 600w, for intermittent 15 min or using 5 pulses of 5 minutes. The study showed that the effectiveness of the particle size of 32 mesh and 6 pulses of 5 min to deacetylation with 92% of degree and chitosan yield (52.2%). The polymer chitosan showed higher antimicrobial activity against to Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica and the yeast Candida sp., respectively. The results indicated the feasibility of the microwave radiation as an attractive method to recover chitin and chitosan from shrimp wastes.

Highlights

In Brazil, shrimp trade has a strong social-economic impact, and its processing generates large amounts of waste (ALMEIDA et al, 2015)
The yield percentage of chitin was calculated from the amount of initial biomass of shrimp exoskeletons (Litopenaeus vannamei)
Candida albicans, Candida pelliculosa, and Candida tropicalis were inhibited with 0.23 μg/mL, which differs slightly from the results found by LEITE et al (2015), using 0.05 μg/mL of chitosan as an antimicrobial agent against yeasts

Summary

Introduction

In Brazil, shrimp trade has a strong social-economic impact, and its processing generates large amounts of waste (ALMEIDA et al, 2015). The shells produce social and environmental problems, due to both their unpleasant odor, and the insects they attract. This situation may cause damage to human health, because of untreated waste that is discarded (SOUZA et al, 2015). As a result, the eutrophization process is favored, which impacts negatively the development of animals and plants. In contrast to this situation, reusing them for chitosan polymer production has been a possible solution (COSTA et al, 2015)

Methods

Results

Conclusion