Improved Chitin and Chitosan Production from Black Tiger Shrimp Shells Using Salicylic Acid Pretreatment

Shrimp chitin and chitosan with improved characteristics were isolated from black tiger shrimp waste pretreated with 0.04 M Salicylic acid for ten hours. The pretreated shrimp shells could be efficiently demineralized and deproteinized at ambient temperature using 0.680 M HCl and 0.620 M NaOH, respectively. The duration of the treatments was 8 hours, the ash and protein residues in the final chitosan were about 0.48% and 0.51% respectively; the viscosity was 4800 cps; the solubility was up to 98%. In comparison with treatment at ambient temperature (30 o C) without pretreatment, the chemical consumption, the duration of the treatment, ash and protein residues was reduced to 75-20%, whereas viscosity and absence of insolubles improved by a factor of 2.5.