Isolation and characterization of chitin and chitosan from marine origin.

Authors :: Nwe N
Furuike T
Tamura H
Source :: Advances in food and nutrition research [Adv Food Nutr Res] 2014; Vol. 72, pp. 1-15.
Publication Year :: 2014
Abstract: Nowadays, chitin and chitosan are produced from the shells of crabs and shrimps, and bone plate of squid in laboratory to industrial scale. Production of chitosan involved deproteinization, demineralization, and deacetylation. The characteristics of chitin and chitosan mainly depend on production processes and conditions. The characteristics of these biopolymers such as appearance of polymer, turbidity of polymer solution, degree of deacetylation, and molecular weight are of major importance on applications of these polymers. This chapter addresses the production processes and conditions to produce chitin, chitosan, and chito-oligosaccharide and methods for characterization of chitin, chitosan, and chito-oligosaccharide.<br /> (© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)