merged

Production and Purification of Chitosan from Horseshoe Crab, Tachypleus
gigas
Nurlyana Yasmin Binti Noor Hisham
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmad Shamsudin Bin Ahmad
Bachelor of Science (Marine Biology)
School of Marine and Environmental Sciences
Chitin was extracted from carapace of Tachypleus gigas using chemical technique
which involving two steps known as demineralization using HCl to remove CaCO3 and
deproteinization using NaOH to remove proteins from the crude sample. Three
different concentrations of HCl were used; 0.25 M, 1.0 M and 2.0 M for
demineralization. Then, the product was deproteinized with 1.0 M of NaOH. The chitin
produced was further derived into chitosan by deacetylation process to remove acetyl
groups using 11 M NaOH. The average content of the carapace of horseshoe crab
were calculated. Different HCl concentrations resulting different content values.
Highest CaCO3 removed (76.65 ± 2.23%) when the sample treated using 2.0 M HCl.
In contrast, treatment using 0.25 M HCl removed the highest amount of proteins
(43.00 ± 6.25%).The highest chitin and chitosan yielded (21.25 ± 0.34% and 16.26
± 0.73% respectively) from the treatment of sample using 1.0 M HCl.
1834 | UMT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH DAY 2018