Chitin, the second most abundant biopolymer next to
cellulose and its derivatives like chitosan, carboxymethyl
chitin, etc., are widely recognized to have immense
applications in many fields.1 They are widely used in
the food industry, medicinal fields, chemical industries,
textiles, water treatment plants, etc.2,3 Glucosamine is
another value-added product prepared from chitin by
hydrolysis and it has versatile applications in pharmaceutics.
4 The prerequisites for the greater use of these
biopolymers in various industries are cost of the manufacturing
process and the technical grade with specific
properties.5 The commercial method of preparation of
chitin from shrimp shell involves strong acid and alkali
treatment to remove the minerals and proteins, respectively.
6 However, the use of these chemicals causes depolymerisation
of the product and therefore affects
properties such as molecular weight, viscosity and degreeof deacetylation. These chemical treatment methods
bring about hazardous environmental problems like
disposal of wastewater. The cost of the chemicals is
another drawback of this approach