Bat guano as new and attractive chitin and chitosan source

Abstract

Introduction: Chitin is a biopolymer that forms the exoskeleton of arthropods, and is found in the cell walls of fungi. It has a wide range of uses in fields such as cosmetics, pharmacy, medicine, bioengineering, agriculture, textiles and environmental engineering based upon its nontoxic, ecofriendly, biocompability and biodegradability characteristics. Commercially, chitin is obtained from processing the outer skeleton of Crustacea such as shrimp, crab, prawn and crayfish after they have been consumed as food. The study aims to examine the nature of bat guano and to determine if it is a practical source of chitin, which has not been done previously.Results: In this study, the chitin content of dry bat guano samples was found to be 28%. The bat guano, which was collected from Karacamal Cave, came from the bat species Rhinolophus hipposideros. The chitosan yield of this chitin was 79%. The chitin produced from the bat guano was determined to be in the alpha form according to Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results. The crystallinity of the chitin and chitosan samples was calculated as 85.49 and 58.51% respectively by X-ray crystallography (XRD) experiments. According to scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs, the chitin and chitosan structures were shaped like nanofibers. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results showed that both chitin and chitosan had two step weight losses, which are characteristic of these materials. The nitrogen content of the chitin and chitosan was 6.47 and 7.3% respectively according to the elemental analysis results. Conclusions:In this research, it has been observed that bat guano can be considered to be an alternative source of chitin and chitosan to crab, shrimp, crayfish and krill.

Chitin extraction and chitosan production from Chilopoda (Scolopendra cingulata) with identification of physicochemical properties

“…In this study the FTIR peaks measured for Chilopoda chito san were at 1655 and 1584 cm -1 . In other studies, these bands were observed between 1651 and 1656 and 1584 and 1590 cm -1 , respectively, for the commercial chito san [30,31]. When the chitosan from S. cingulata were compared with commercial chitosan, it is seen that they were quite similar to each other.…”

Collagen/chitosan based two-compartment and bi-functional dermal scaffolds for skin regeneration

“…And it is worth mentioning that chitosan has a number of notable properties, including nontoxicity, highly porous and fibrous structures, biocompatibility, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial activities and wound healing promoter (e.g., fibroblast activation, cytokine production, giant cell migration and stimulation of type IV collagen synthesis) [26][27][28][29][30].…”