Abstract
Shell waste produced by the sea food industry is one of the most significant problems contributing for environmental and health hazards. The most frequent method employed for disposal of these waste is burning which is environmentally costly due to low burning capacity of shells. In such a scenario, conversion of shrimp shell waste to chitosan, a commercially valuable product with a myriad of uses, could serve as an effective mode of shell remediation. Chitosan was obtained from shellfish waste by deproteination, demineralization, discoloration and deacetylation processes. It was characterized using Fourier Transformed Infra-Red (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The physico-chemical parameters such as moisture content, ash content, solubility, N-content, water binding capacity (WBC), fat binding capacity (FBC) and degree of deacetylation (DD) were analysed to compare the extracted six chitosan samples from Penaeus monodon, Portunus pelagicus, Portunus sanguinolentus, Scylla serrata, Panulirus homarus and Panulirus versicolor. The ranges for percentage yield, moisture content, ash content, N-content, percentage solubility, and WBC were 14.53±0.47%-34.13±3.72%, 3.16±1.77%-7.52±1.11%, 0.65±0.23%-53.52±5.65%, 2.02±0.03% - 6.16±0.10%, 15.28±0.62% - 47.91±5.15%, and 262.94±20.88% - 600.61±58.11% respectively. FBC varied approximately from 250% to 650% in coconut oil, sunflower oil and soybean oil. Among the six chitosan samples, P. monodon was the most suitable crustacean exoskeleton waste from fish processing industry to isolate chitosan due to the fact that in the processing of shrimps for human consumption, 40 - 50 % of the total mass is discarded as waste and high quality of chitosan extracted. Therefore, there is a high possibility of extracting good quality chitosan using exoskeleton waste of Penaeus monodon.
Highlights
Chitosan is a polyaminosaccharide synthesized from the deacetylation of chitin, a polysaccharide consisting predominantly of unbranched chains of β-(1→4)-2acetoamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose
The highest percentage yields of chitosan were obtained from three crab shell samples Portunus pelagicus (Pp), Portunus sanguinolentus (Ps) and Scylla serrata (Ss), which yielded 34.13±3.72%, 32.30±0.32%, 32.20±0.58% respectively
The lowest yields were obtained from the two lobster shell samples, Panulirus homarus (Ph) and Panulirus versicolor (Pv), which yielded 15.73±1.22% and 14.53±0.47% respectively
Summary
Chitosan is a polyaminosaccharide synthesized from the deacetylation of chitin, a polysaccharide consisting predominantly of unbranched chains of β-(1→4)-2acetoamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose. Chitin is the second most abundant polymer in nature after cellulose (Wan Ngah et al 2010; Wang et al 2010; Thibaut et al 2016). Chitin occurs in nature as ordered crystalline microfibrils forming structural components in the exoskeleton of arthropods or in the cell walls of fungi and yeast. A delicacy for many are seen in market in a wide variety of products. Sea food industries process and package the harvested products. Only the meat is taken, while the head and shells of shell fish are discarded as waste. This results in generation of large amount of shell waste globally
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