Isolation and characterization of chitin from shells of the freshwater crab potamon algeriense

This work presents, for the first time, the extraction and characterization of chitin from the shell of the freshwater crab species Potamon algeriense with a standardized and revised chemical method. Chitin and chitosan were isolated following demineralization, deproteinization, decolouration (raw chitin), and deacetylation (chitosan). After boiling, drying, and grinding, 62.12% of the ground shell was obtained. A yield of 40.92% was obtained after demineralization of ground crab shell, while after the deproteinization process 8.74% was obtained. After decolourization, 8.27% of raw chitin was obtained, and the final amount of chitosan extracted from the crab shells was approximately 5.89%. We also characterized the isolated chitin by determining its physicochemical properties using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).