Microwave aqueous extraction of shrimp shell proteins.

Abstract

Shrimp production generates the exoskeleton as one of the waste products due to the moulting process of the arthropods1. This shell can be valorised by the recovery of chitin, but it also has a high protein content (20-40%)2 with interest to be isolated. During the conventional chitin extraction process, these obtained proteins cannot be reused, due to the use of inorganic alkaline solvents3. In this context, this study aimed to use water as solvent for the extraction of proteins from shrimp molt shells by microwave assisted extraction. The variables temperature (T: 175 and 225 °C), isothermal time (t: 0 and 10), and solvent-feed ratio (S/F: 10, 20 and 40 mL/g) were studied to understand their effects in the extraction of the proteins and co-extraction of other compounds