Extraction and characterization of chitin from sea snail Conus inscriptus (Reeve, 1843)

The chitin was extracted from C. inscriptus and the structure was elucidated. The yield of the C. inscriptus shell chitin was 21.65% on dry weight basis. The ash and moisture content of the chitin was 1.2 and 6.50%. The result of the molecular analysis of the chitin revealed low molecular weight (25 kDa). The crystalline structure (XRD), functional group (FT-IR), elemental analysis (EDAX), surface morphology (SEM) and thermal stability (TG/DTA) results confirmed conus chitin was in α-crystalline form. The crystalline index value (CrI) of the conus chitin was 82.13%. The FT-IR analysis of the conus chitin displayed two bands at around 1730 and 1628 cm^-1. SEM investigation of the commercial chitin and C. inscriptus chitin exposed that it was composed of nanopore and nanofibre structures. Further, the thermal stability of the conus chitin was close to the thermal stability of the commercial chitin. The results show that processing of C. inscriptus shell can lead to a high quality chitin, useful for a broad range of applications.