Characterization of bioactive chitin recovered from shrimp shells

Chitin and its derivatives show ability to form biologically active compounds. They show novel characteristics and broad applications, especially in biomedical field. Chitin can be derived from crustaceans, insects or fungi by chemical method including deproteinization and demineralization by using chemicals. However, as the chemicals may exert adverse effects on the environment, and hence Chitin was recovered by employing enzyme protease producing bacteria for deproteinization, and lactic acid bacteria for demineralization during present investigation As a result of this, 30.09% creamy white colored chitin was obtained from shrimp shells. The crystallinity index of biologically recovered chitin was 51.10 (%) with crystallite size was 32.2 nm. From similarity of FTIR bands and peaks of XRD, it was concluded that chitin recovered by biological process is similar to that recovered from chemical method.