Facile and green approach in managing sand crab carapace biowaste for obtention of high deacetylation percentage chitosan

Sand crabs are one of the most important and abundant invertebrates in the sandy beaches ecosystem of the Pacific sea. After death, this crustacean generates large quantities of solid waste in the form of body carapace (exoskeleton), which has caused pollution and affecting human life quality. The carapace is primarily composed of chitin and proteins. Therefore, this bio-waste could be employed as a potential source of chitosan, providing health benefit to human. Thus, in this work, samples with different deacetylation percentage of chitosan were obtained. Separate treatments were applied to the carapace and the ends. The microscopic particles are flake-like structures with size range of 110 - 220 μm and uniformly distributed porosity was found in the end samples. An orthorhombic crystal structure (crystallinity of 30%) was observed, similar to the sample reported in literature. Ash, humidity and insoluble matter percentage confirmed the quality of chitosan for potential biomedical applications.