SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — May 23, 2014 — With Newfoundland landing around 100 million pounds per year of northern shrimp, there is room to collect and manufacture chitosan products. Chitosan, particularly higher medical quality grades, is increasingly in demand for pharmaceutical uses. However, the enzymatic processes to produce high grade material had not been tested or certified on Northern Shrimp, only on warm water shrimp.
This gave birth to a three year cooperative project between the Marine Institute and a local biotech company, Chitocean. The plan was to validate technology licensed from Germany, to produce multiple pure, safe and natural chitosan products from shrimp shells.
Chitin is a component found in shrimp and crab shells that, once extracted, can be converted into chitosan which has a wide range of quality grades that determine its market. Medical companies using biomedical chitosan (the highest grade), send their chitosan through clinical trials to obtain Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.
The German company, Ensymm, developed a process to extract chitosan from different types of shell material. Since the technology had previously only been used on warm water shrimp, Chitocean licensed the technology and collaborated with the Marine Institute to validate the technology on Northern Shrimp.
The validation study was conducted in both a lab scale and pilot scale. During the validation process a number of technical challenges were encountered. CASD (Center for Aquaculture and Seafood Development at the Marine Institute) worked in collaboration with Ensymm and Chitocean to mitigate and optimize the process to accommodate Northern shrimp shells. The enhancement of the process included combining a unique air blowing pre-treatment of the shells, feasible enzymatic deproteination, depigmentation using an inorganic solvent and a multi-stage end product conversion process. These processes were used in an innovative manner not previously conducted on a commercial scale.
The new process results in the production of multiple chitosan products for various markets including industrial applications up to biomedical applications. The chitosan products will be used for a wide array of applications such as in cosmetic skin care products and drug/vaccine carriers in the pharmaceutical industry.
“With the validated process in hand Chitocean will commercialize production of chitosan as high quality ingredients for numerous medical and cosmetic applications,” said Diane Hollett, commercialization partner, Chitocean. “The North American market for this grade of chitosan is growing at rates of 17% per year, with over 200 patented applications in the United States alone driving growth in the advanced medical fields. Globally, the market is growing at a rate of 15% annually.”
Funding for this initiative was provided by the Canadian Centre for Fisheries Innovation.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.