Abstract:

Chitin is one of the most abundant natural amino polysaccharide and is estimated to be produced annually quantity being second only to cellulose. It has become of great interest on its development and application, but the raw material of chitin is limited currently with a high producing cost. However, insect is the biggest dominant animal group in the nature, and its total biomass is the biggest one among all of creatures in the nature, also the biggest unoccupied bio resources, especially the chitin resource of insect. Thus, insect is potentially an abundant resource for alternative raw material of chitin in the future. Whereas the resource of insect chitin has not been exploitaged until now, we studied the chemical characters of the chitin/chitosan from dung beetle, comparison analysis of the qualities of chitin/chitosan with those were from crab and shrimp shells and the technology of isolation chitin/chitosan from dung beetle. It is showed by this research that the content of chitin in dung beetle Copris ochus Motschulshy is several times higher than the shell of shrimp and crab which is the normal raw material for chitin, for the chitin content in shells is about 6%～14% in average and the chitin content of the dung beetle is 28.7%. And the quality of chitin and chitosan from dung beetle is better than the shells for residual ash content of chitin, the viscosities of chitosan and the color of chitin products. Meanwhile, it was fulfilled on the research of isolation chitin/chitosan from dung beetle by the experimentation of single factor method, the appropriate conditions of reaction are: ①Removing mineral matter: put the sample in the solution of 0.8 mol·L^-1 HCl, heated for 30 min at 70℃ firstly, then keep for 12 h under room temperature. ②Removing protein and grease: processed the sample with the solution of 2.0～2.5 mol·L ^-1 NaOH, 90～100℃, keep for 4～5 h. ③Deacetylation: processed the chitin with the solution of 10.00～11.25 mol·L ^-1 NAOH, keep for 3 h under 130℃.

Key words: Dung beetle, Chitin, Chitosan, Reaction conditions