Chitosan Preparation from Persian Gulf Shrimp Shells and Investigating the Effect of Time on the Degree of Deacetylation

Chitosan is an amino polysaccharide which can be prepared from shrimp shells with several applications in medicine and tissue engineering. The most important parameter, that characterizes chitosan and its applications, is its degree of deacetylation. In this research the influence of deacetylation time on the quality of the produced chitosan was investigated by measuring the amount of glucosamine and acetyl glucosamine. The amount of glucosamine in the sample was measured using HPLC analysis based on derivation method. By deacetylation of the extracted chitin in 90 and 180 minutes, chitosan with deacetylation degree of 69.75% and 77.63% was obtained, respectively. Therefore, by increasing the deacetylation period in a constant temperature condition and NaOH concentration, the deacetylation degree is increased.