Abstract:
The aim of the present work is the recovery of co-products from shrimp shells by isolation of chitin and
chitosan. Chitin is the major structural component of the exoskeleton of invertebrates. Chitosan, the
deacetylated form of chitin, exhibits many biological activities including antifungal, antibacterial properties,
wound-healing properties, and tumor inhibition. Its biological and physico-chemical properties make it an
attractive biopolymer for highly targeted applications. The shrimp shells are widely used as raw material to
isolate chitin, which is done by, the chemical or enzyme method. In this study, the choice is made on the first
method which requires the dissolution of minerals, by acid treatment and extraction of the proteins by a basic
treatment, followed by a stage of bleaching to remove pigments. Chitosan, it is obtained by deacetylation of
chitin. The isolated substances were characterized by several techniques: chemical characterization, infrared
spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and the X-ray diffraction. FTIR analysis
confirmed the conversion of chitin to chitosan with deacetylation of 78.7%. The presence of a high crystalline
portion in the chitin was observed by XRD. Regarding the glass transition, the estimated humidity 6% of the
chemical characterization in chitin played the role of a plasticizer; therefore, there was a decrease in Tg.
