ABSTRACT
The shell waste of crustacean is composed of 30–40% protein, 30– 50% calcium carbonate and 20–30% chitin, these compositions are variable, depending on the species and seasons (Cho et al., 1998). This creates great potential for the use of crustaceans waste, mostly shells in the extraction of Chitin and its derivative Chitosan. In a study conducted by Shahidi and Synowiecki, (1991) it was determined that crab (Chinoecetes opilio) and shrimp (Pandalus borealis) contained about 17-32.2% chitin (Shahidi and Synowiecki, 1991) in another study by Hong and Mun, (1995) they observed that chitin isolated from crab (Chionoecetes opilio) contained 26.6% chitin. In Nigeria, about 777.03 million kg of fish and seafood are consumed annually.(Statista.com), this leaves a trail of waste especially from seafood. Otako and Cynthia (2014) estimated the daily Periwinkle shell waste in southern Nigeria to be about 6 tons while snail consumption amounts to about 450,000 tons per year (Babbanoa.com), this poses threats for pollution of waterways in the country but fortunately these shells can become useful raw materials for the extraction of Chitin and Chitosan which have many applications in agriculture, medicine, textile industries. (Bashar and Khan, 2013). The extraction process usually involves chemicals such as NaOH and HCl for the deproteinisation and demineralization of the shell and these chemicals (Jung et al., 2007), especially NaOH is expensive and causes adverse pollution and soil degradation during xiii mining, so in this study, we experimented the use of Palm bunch ash which according to research has been found to possess high Potassium Content up to 68% and can be used for industrial purpose. (Duruanyim et al.,2016), we substituted the use of PBA potash solution for NaOH in the extraction of Chitin and Chitosan and recorded a significant yield of 79.52% and 83.26% for Chitin from snail and periwinkle shells respectively, and 73.72% and 79.33% for chitosan from snail and periwinkle shells respectively.
