Depolymerization of chitosan from snail (Pilla ampullaceae) field shell using α-amylase

Abstract

Chitosan is a biopolymer derivative from chitin that has many benefits for applications in various fields. Since chitosan has a large molecular weight, it has constraints to its application. To overcome the disadvantage, it needs hydrolysis of chitosan in order to obtain a lower molecular weight. In this research, the hydrolysis of chitosan from snail field shell (Pilla ampullaceae) will be operated by the enzymatic process using α-amylase. The chitosan solution is hydrolysis using α-amylase with the varied time of hydrolysis. The results showed that the operating conditions for chitosan hydrolysis using α-amylase enzyme is at 5 hours operating time and concentration of enzyme 0.02 %. The hydrolysis can reduce the molecular weight of chitosan snail field shell from 6.41 x 105Da to 1.06 x 104Da and the viscosity from 41.7 cPs to 17.3 cPs.