Research Article
Open Access
A Preliminary Investigation on Deprotenization of Green Crab Shells (Carcinus Maenas)
S. Kirubanandan
Advanced Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science,
Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
S. Kirubanandan /Int.J. TechnoChem Res. 2016,2(1),pp 38-53.
Abstract
The green crab (Carcinus maenas) shell is the potential source for numerous bio-products
that are to be utilized in a variety of biomedical and biotechnology applications. Chitin and Chitosan
are the most important materials from crab shells and its application in the design of various medical
devices such as drug delivery vehicle and tissue engineering construct. Even though the well
established extraction protocol for chitin/Chitosan from crab shell is available, however, there are large
usage of harsh chemicals with high concentration such as 2M Sodium Hydroxide solution and 2M
hydrochloric acid for chitin extraction. As a consequence, These harsh chemicals affect not only affect
the quality of chitin/chitosan polymer also produce numerous environmental problems such as
increasing acidity and total dissolved solids in waste water by neutralizing acid with an alkali or vice
versa. The most important focus of this investigation is to contribute the interpretation of the
deprotenization of the grab shells using various concentration of sodium hydroxide solution and
contact time at different temperatures. The protein leached from the grab shell is measured by reading
absorbance at 280 nm in UV-Visible spectrophotometer. Furthermore, the percentage removal of
protein from the crab shell at various concentration of Sodium hydroxide is carried out and evaluated
based on the dry weight of the crab shell. The optimized temperature of deprotenization is found and
commented. In addition to that, the kinetic limitation of de-proteinization is mentioned using
experimental data. To conclude, the effective de-protenization of green crab shell is carried out in 1M
NaOH at 45°C for extraction of chitosan with optimum quantity from green crab shells.