Chitin Flakes

Chitin is a mucopolysacharide. It is the second most abundant biopolymer next to cellulose. Chitin was first isolated by braconnot in 1811 from mushrooms and was named “fungine”. A material identical to fungine was found in insects in 1821 by Odier and he named it as “chitine”.

Chitin is a colourless hard substance found in the shells of cephalopods and in the internal structures of other invertebrates. Major sources of chitin are shell fish, krill, clams, oysters, squid and insects. Chitin is found in the cell walls of some fungi, molds and yeasts also. Zygometes also contain chitin. Fresh water bryozoans are able to produce colonies whose envelope is made up of chitin and protein in a noncalcified form allowing easy extraction of chitin.

In nature chitin occurs in two major polymorphic forms: chitin is characterized by antiparallel and β-chitin is by parallel arrangement of polymer chains. Chitin obtained  from prawn shell is α- chitin.β-chitin can be observed  in squid pen. These two forms vary in the orientation of the molecular structure.

Chitin is hydrophobic and is insoluble in water and in most of the organic solvents. Chitin is a polymer with versatile applications. It is applicable to different fields like chromatography, paper, textiles photography, food and nutrition, agriculture, pharmaceutical, etc. research has shown that chitin is nontoxic and nonallergenic, so the body does not reject this compound as foreign invader. Polymers suitable for making both hard and soft contact lenses can be made from chitin. Since it is highly permeable to oxygen, chitin lens could be worn for long periods. Chitin was found effective against ethanol-HCI induced peptic ulcer in rats. Low solubility in aqeous solutions hinders its use in textile industry. Chitin grabbed more commercial interest because of its high percentage of nitrogen(6.89%) content compared to synthetically substituted cellulose(1.25%). Enzymatically degraded chitin can serve as a matrix for the controlled release of drugs, especially in the eye. Chitin can be modified to obtain controlled amphiphilic polysaccharides, which may be either cationic(chitosan) or anjonic (carboxymethyl chitin)

• Ash Content: below 1%
• Moisture Content: less than 10%
• Protein Content: less than 0.2%