Production of High Viscosity Chitosan from Biologically Purified Chitin Isolated by Microbial Fermentation and Deproteinization

Table 5

Properties of chitosan flakes obtained from deacetylation of chitin extracted by chemical and two-step biological processes.

Properties	Shrimp chitosan flake products
	Deacetylation of chemically processed chitin	Deacetylation of biologically purified chitin
pH	7	7
Appearance	White	White
Crude protein (%, w/w)	0.3±0.1	0.4±0.3
Ash (%, w/w)	0.3±0.1	1.6±0.6
Color properties
𝐿^∗	73.1±2.0	77.3±1.4
𝑎^∗	0.5±0.1	0.7±0.2
𝑏^∗	7.0±0.3	6.4±0.6
WI^a	72.1	76.4
Degree of deacetylation (%)	82.2±1.2	83.2±1.5
Viscosity^b (mPa·s)	323.0±15.6	1,007±14.7

awhiteness index, by calculation.
^bviscosity was determined at shear rate of 50 s⁻¹ (20°C).