PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF BIOPOLYMERS CHITIN AND CHITOSAN EXTRACTED FROM SQUID DORYTEUTHIS SIBOGAE ADAM, 1954 PEN

Recently the squid pens, a rich source of - chitin contains low contents of inorganic compounds, have become available in considerable amounts as a refuse of the fishery industries in India. Thus, the aim of this work is to use squid pens from Doryteuthis sibogae, found in the Indian coast, squid pens were submitted usual sequence of treatment used for chitin extraction- demineralization and deproteinaization but due to its low content of inorganic compounds a two step alkaline treatments was enough to produce - chitin with low content of metals such as Mn (0.260ppm), Cu (0.905ppm), Mg (11.01ppm) and Ca (24ppm) reported. And the degree of acetylation was 45.12% in IR Spectrum and 043.47% in UV Spectrophotometer respectively. Regardless of the treatment employed for the extraction of the - chitin and chitosan from squid pens, its infra red spectra and UV spectrophotometer method showed only minor differences, however they were clearly distinguished from commercial a - chitin.