Production of Chitin and Chitosan using Successive Three-step Microbial Fermentation

By : Hongcai Zhang , Yanan Qian , Shunsheng Chen , Huaning Yu

Page No: 123-127

Abstract
The crustacean shells of shrimps and crabs produces abundant by-products, resulting in seriously environmental pollution during industrial processing, yet they turned into high-value and useful products, such as chitin and chitosan. To prepare them using microbial fermentation technique, shrimp shell powders (SSPs) was fermented by successive three-step microbial fermentation (Serratia marcescens B742, Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC 8014 and Rhizopus japonicus M193) to extract chitin and chitosan under previously optimal conditions. The results indicated that the yields of prepared chitin and chitosan were 21.35% and 13.11% with the recoveries of 74.67% and 63.42%, respectively. The degree of deacetylation (DDA) and molecular mass (MM) of produced chitosan reached 81.23% and 512.06 kDa, respectively. The established microbial fermentation technique can be applied for the industrial large-scale production of chitin and chitosan, while the use of chemical reagents was significantly reduced.

Authors :
Hongcai Zhang, Yanan Qian and Shunsheng Chen : Laboratory of Aquatic Products Quality & Safety Risk Assessment (Shanghai) at China Ministry of Agriculture, College of Food Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University, No 999, Huchenghuan Road, Lingang New District, Shanghai 201306, China
Huaning Yu : State Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Dairy Biotechnology, Dairy Research Institute, Bright Dairy & Food Co., Ltd., Synergetic Innovation Center of Food Safety and Nutrition, Shanghai 200436, China