Abstract
Chitin and chitosan are biopolymers that have diverse applications in medicine, agriculture, food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, wastewater treatment and textiles. With bio-origins, they easily blend with biological systems and show exemplified compatibility which is mandatory when it comes to biomedical research. Chitin and chitosan are ecofriendly, however the processes that are used to recover them aren’t ecofriendly. The focus of this work is to attempt an ecofriendly, sustainable phytomediated one pot recovery of chitosan from commercial chitin and from crab and shrimp shells and squid pen solid wastes. Graviola extracts have been employed, given the fact file that their active ingredients acetogenins actively interact with chitin in insects (resulting in its application as an insecticide). With that as the core idea, the graviola extracts were chosen for orchestrating chitin recovery and a possible chitin to chitosan transformation. The results confirm that graviola extracts did succeed in recovery of chitosan nanofibers from commercial chitin flakes and recovery of chitosan particles directly from solid marine wastes of crab, shrimp and squids. This is a first time report of a phyto-extract mediated novel chitosan synthesis method.
Highlights
Chitin and chitosan are biopolymers that have diverse applications in medicine, agriculture, food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, wastewater treatment and textiles
Acetogenin class of polyethers are found in the Annonaceae family of plants[37,38,39]
Acetogenins are known for their dechitinization activity, which has formed the basis for their use against larvae of pests[40]
Summary
Chitin and chitosan are biopolymers that have diverse applications in medicine, agriculture, food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, wastewater treatment and textiles. The results confirm that graviola extracts did succeed in recovery of chitosan nanofibers from commercial chitin flakes and recovery of chitosan particles directly from solid marine wastes of crab, shrimp and squids. The most common method for chemically isolating chitin from crustacean shells involves a number of major steps: the washing, grinding and sieving of raw shells, followed by their demineralization (elimination of calcium carbonate in dilute acidic acid). This is followed by deproteinization in aqueous NaOH or KOH. Chitosan is a hot topic biomaterial that has excellent properties, but a global problem is that it is difficult to get a continuous and accessible supply
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