Espinosa-Solís, A.; Velázquez-Segura, A.; Lara-Rodríguez, C.; Martínez, L.M.; Chuck-Hernández, C.; Rodríguez-Sifuentes, L. Optimizing Chitin Extraction and Chitosan Production from House Cricket Flour. Processes2024, 12, 464.
Espinosa-Solís, A.; Velázquez-Segura, A.; Lara-Rodríguez, C.; Martínez, L.M.; Chuck-Hernández, C.; Rodríguez-Sifuentes, L. Optimizing Chitin Extraction and Chitosan Production from House Cricket Flour. Processes 2024, 12, 464.
Espinosa-Solís, A.; Velázquez-Segura, A.; Lara-Rodríguez, C.; Martínez, L.M.; Chuck-Hernández, C.; Rodríguez-Sifuentes, L. Optimizing Chitin Extraction and Chitosan Production from House Cricket Flour. Processes2024, 12, 464.
Espinosa-Solís, A.; Velázquez-Segura, A.; Lara-Rodríguez, C.; Martínez, L.M.; Chuck-Hernández, C.; Rodríguez-Sifuentes, L. Optimizing Chitin Extraction and Chitosan Production from House Cricket Flour. Processes 2024, 12, 464.
Abstract
Chitin and its derivative, chitosan, have diverse applications in fields such as agriculture, medicine, and biosensors, amongst others. Extraction is primarily conducted from marine sources, such as crustaceans, which have been the focus of optimization process studies. However, there are other sources that are more readily available, such as insects, where insufficient research has been conducted. The house cricket (Acheta domesticus) is a promising source for chitin extraction because of its high chitin content, availability, and short lifespan. Modern chemical chitin extraction methods have not been standardized due to the use of different reagents, molar concentrations, temperatures, and reaction times across publications. Therefore, in this study, the compositional analysis of Acheta domesticus cricket flour was determined: 2.62% humidity, 4.3% ash content, 56.29% protein, 13.35% fat, 23.44% carbohydrates, and 15.71% crude fiber content. After a drying, defatting, demineralization, deproteinization, and bleaching process, chitin extraction was performed, and chitosan was obtained via a deacetylation reaction. The demineralization process was standardized at 30ºC for 3 hours using HCl 2M, resulting in 95.85 ± 0.012%. The deproteinization process was optimized at 80ºC for 45 minutes using NaOH 2.56 M, yielding 46.37 ± 3.86%. Finally, the identity and physicochemical characteristics of the compounds were determined through characterization with FTIR, XRD, SEM and DSC.
Chemistry and Materials Science, Materials Science and Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
,
*
