title: Extraction and characterization of chitin and chitosan from local sources.
abstract: Chitin has been extracted from six different local sources in Egypt. The obtained chitin was converted into the more useful soluble chitosan by steeping into solutions of NaOH of various concentrations and for extended periods of time, then the alkali chitin was heated in an autoclave which dramatically reduced the time of deacetylation. Chitin from squid pens did not require steeping in sodium hydroxide solution and showed much higher reactivity towards deacetylation in the autoclave that even after 15 min of heating a degree of deacetylation of 90% was achieved. The obtained chitin and chitosan were characterized by spectral analysis, X-ray diffraction and thermo gravimetric analysis.
authors: Food Technology Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Cairo 12631, Egypt.
authors: Entsar S
authors: ES
authors: Abdou
authors: Khaled S A
authors: KS
authors: Nagy
authors: Maher Z
authors: MZ
authors: Elsabee
mesh_terms: D002686:Chitin / Q000737:chemistry*; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D004534:Egypt; D006358:Hot Temperature; D012972:Sodium Hydroxide / Q000737:chemistry; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013997:Time Factors; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D002686:Chitin; D012972:Sodium Hydroxide; D048271:Chitosan