Extraction, Characterization and Biological properties of Chitosan Extracted from Prawn Shells

• Main Author: Nor Aimuni, Abd Aziz
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2019
• Subjects: QD Chemistry
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/37126/1/Nor%20Aimuni%20%2824pgs%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/37126/2/Nor%20Aimuni%20%28fulltext%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/37126/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Chitosan is a valuable marine biopolymer and it possesses excellent biodegradability, biocompatible and a non-toxic material which results in unique applications in many industries. Chitosan is a biomaterial which is derived from chitin extracted from the prawn shells. This study is conducted by recovering a chitosan from prawn shells, that are abundant in fisheries production in Malaysia. The objective of this study is to extract the chitosan from prawn shells and testing its ability as antioxidant and antimicrobial agent. The extracted chitosan from prawn shells were characterized via FTIR and SEM. Some physicochemical properties of the chitosan was to check the quality of the extracted chitosan produced. The results of the extracted chitosan were 52% DDA, 2.43% yield, 2.66% moisture content, 100% solubility, 118.41 % WBC and 117.60% FBC. The extracted chitosan was further analysed via antioxidant and antimicrobial assays. The chitosan was found to demonstrate its antioxidant activity against DPPH. Moreover, the chitosan also was demonstrated antimicrobial effects against S. aureus and E. coli by disk diffusion method whereby the inhibition zone is appeared on the agar plates. Thus, the results for both antioxidant and antimicrobial testing indicated the chitosan from the prawn shells was found to be in a good quality and compatible with a broad range of unique applications in many industries.