Extraction and Physicochemical Characterization of Chitosan from Litopenaeus vannamei Shells

The chitosan was extracted from a whiteleg shrimp shell (Litopenaeus vannamei (by the deacetylation of chitin, which is carried out using 45% NaOH at 110 ºC for 6 h. The prepared chitosan was characterized by using the Fourier Transform InfraRed (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDXS), and ThermoGravimetric Analysis (TGA). The physicochemical property of this extracted polysaccharide, including the degree of deacetylation, apparent viscosity, molecular weight, Water Binding Capacity (WBC), and Fat Binding Capacity (FBC) from whiteleg shrimp shell was evaluated. The current study contrasted the characteristics of chitosan with the commercial type. Accordingly, to obtain the degree of deacetylation, the titration method and elemental analysis were considered, while the viscometric methods were used to achieve the molecular weight. The SPSS software was used for the analysis of the obtained data. Based on the comparison between the studied chitosan and commercial one, some behaviors were observed, including increased deacetylation and viscosity, decreased molecular weight, and higher water and fat binding capacities. The degree of deacetylation was determined as 86% for the titration method and 83% for elemental analysis. WBC and FBC of chitosan from shrimp were reported as 673.58 and 491.32, showing that all chitosan properties experienced a good improvement compared with the commercial type.