Extraction and Characterization of Litopenaeus vannamei’s Shell as Potential Sources of Chitosan Biopolymers

Abstract

Chitin is the second most abundant polysaccharide, produced mainly as an industrial waste stream during crustacean processing. Chitin can be derived into chitosan through the deacetylation process. Conversion of shrimp waste into chitosan via the deacetylation process could be considered a practical approach for shell waste reme-diation. In this study, chitosan’s physicochemical characteristics extracted from two types of Pacific whiteleg shrimp, L. vannamei’s shell (i.e., rough and smooth), were compared with commercial chitosan. The yield, moist-ure, ash, solubility, water and fat binding capacity were measured. The degree of deacetylation (DDA) was cal-culated using FTIR, and their chemical Structure was confirmed using XRD and SEM-EDS. Both extracted chitosan showed no significant difference in yield, moisture, ash, solubility and water binding capacity but showed asignificant difference with commercial chitosan. Moreover, the fat binding capacity of commercial chitosan showed the lowest percentage (408.34 ± 0.83%) as compared to extracted chitosan (smooth shell 549.59 ± 12.48%; rough shell 500.55 ± 12.10%). The DDA indicated that extracted chitosan from the smooth and rough shell was considered good chitosan as compared to commercial chitosan with 84.08 ± 1.27%, 80.78 ± 0.79% and 74.99 ± 1.48%, respectively. Additionally, the presence of hydroxyl and amino groups from FTIR and a good crystallinity index was recorded using XRD of extracted chitosan. Based on observed characteristics, shrimp shell waste from L. vannamei can achieve chitosan standard quality as a biopolymer and highly potential to be applied in various industrial applications.