and ash (20%) on a dry basis (Table 1). Our values were in agreement
with those obtained by No et al., (1995). However, it should be
noted that these results are not constant because for crustaceans
quantitative and qualitative changes in chitin may be observed due
to the physiological stage of the organism or seasonal variations,
and according to the species, (Fernadez-Kim 2004; Seng 1988).
Thus, an appropriate extraction procedure needed to be developed
to obtain a white chitin product comparable to the commercial
chitins. Demineralization of the dried shrimp shells was
achieved with 1.5 N HCl and 30 min reaction time at ambient