ABSTRACT
Chitin in crustacean cuticles is tightly associated with inorganic salts such as calcium carbonate, proteins, and lipids, including pigments. To isolate chitin from crustacean shells, three steps are required, namely, demineralization (DM), deproteinization (DP), and elimination of lipids, including pigments. The traditional method for chitin production was performed through a chemical process using inorganic acids for DM and strong alkali for DP (No et al. 1989, Aye and Stevens 2004). The chemical DM and DP processes have several problems such as they are a source of pollution (Allan et al. 1978), reduce depolymerization and, thus, the chitin quality (Healy et al. 1994, Simpson et al. 1994), the anomerization, and the hydrolytic effects on the chitin structure such as deacetylation (Ng et al. 2000). This process also renders the protein component useless, which otherwise can be used as animal feed and as nutritional additives.
