Vol. 8, Issue 1 (2020)
Isolation and screening of microorganisms for chitosan production
Author(s): Aathira S Kumar and Kamla Malik
Abstract: Chitosan is a cationic linear biopolymer that is produced by deacetylation of chitin by chitin deacetylase. This enzyme hydrolyses acetamido groups of N-acetyl glucosamine in chitin. Chitosan has immense potential especially in the field of agriculture, food and pharmaceuticals. In most of the countries, commercial exploitation of chitosan is predominantly done by conversion of chitin to chitosan by treating shellfish waste with alkali. The biological methods for extraction of chitosan were used as alternative for chemical methods. In the present study, 18 morphologically different fungal isolates, 17 bacteria and 3 actinomycete were isolated from soil and water samples. Out of these 38 strains, six isolates of fungi, two bacterial isolates and one actinomycete showed positive results by production of yellow color in the chitin agar media supplemented with p-nitroacetanilide as indicator.
DOI: 10.22271/chemi.2020.v8.i1t.8455
Pages: 1408-1410 | 856 Views 303 Downloads
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How to cite this article:
Aathira S Kumar, Kamla Malik. Isolation and screening of microorganisms for chitosan production. Int J Chem Stud 2020;8(1):1408-1410. DOI: 10.22271/chemi.2020.v8.i1t.8455