India can produce chitosan in big way
Global market of chitosan produced from shrimp shells, is expected to reach $47.06 bn by 2030
image for illustrative purpose
India is a producer of large quantity of frozen shrimps whose shells can be used for producing chitosan which is used by pharmaceutical and other industries
Visakhapatnam: Chitosan market, which is at its nascent stage, has huge potential to grow in India with awareness fast spreading in Andhra Pradesh and other maritime States on how shells from shrimp and other sea creatures go unused.
With projections that the chitosan market in the world will grow at 12 per cent, a few units to extract chemical substance from the shells by removing calcium and protein while retaining chitin, have come forward to set up extraction units in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, Kochi of Kerala and parts of West Coast. The extracted material is of big use for pharmaceutical and agriculture operations.
Dr B Madhusudhan Rao, Principal Scientist, Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), Visakhapatnam, told Bizz Buzz on Monday that India being producer of large quantity of frozen shrimps--almost 50 per cent, 13 lakh tonne of seafood produced in India, has huge potential to produce chitosan from the shrimp shells.
He said the biomedical properties are used by pharmaceutical industry. It contributes to production of fat-trapper tablets, which once consumed in an empty stomach kills the fat. For agriculture practices, it helps in water purification. It also possesses antimicrobial agents helping in usage for blood clotting in the case of wounds.
According to conservative estimates, the world’s chitosan market is poised to grow annually by 12 per cent from the current size of $10.88 billion to $47.06 billion by 2030, an expert at the just-concluded India International Seafood Show (IISS) in Kolkata said.
Sensing a huge opportunity awaiting the country in this field, LongShore Technologies founder Amey Naik pointed out that India is a major player in the market of chitosan, a chemical substance taken from the shells of sea creatures. The top competitors are the US, Canada, Japan, France, China, Germany and Vietnam.
India’s production of chitosan is localised, with its main application in agriculture, pharma, waste water treatment, cosmetics, animal and aquafeed sectors, he revealed, speaking on ‘Startup Initiatives in Product Diversification/Path breaking Technology for Seafood Industry’ at the February 15-17 event organised by Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) in association with the Seafood Exporters Association of India.
“Chitosan can also be used for making end-use products such as plant growth booster, which is a solution with chitosan and some organic acids, for increasing overall yield of vegetative crops,” he noted at a technical session of IISS-2023.
According to Naik, one benefit of the biotechnology based chitosan manufacturing process is that it required 83 per cent less water requirement than the conventional one. “Moreover, 95 per cent of the total input material is used and only five per cent is lost in the process or treated as effluents. Significantly, the protein recovered from the process has pepsin (chief digestive enzyme in the stomach) which has a digestibility of more than 90 per cent,” he said. His firm is based in Gandhinagar.
The biotechnology process requires 90 per cent less acid and 70 per cent less alkali, compared to the conventional process, he added.
Shrimp shell waste is de-proteinised and demineralised to produce Chitin. Chitin subsequently is deacetylated to produce chitosan. Chitosan has applications in food industry, biomedical/ pharmaceutical industries, water treatment, textiles, agriculture and cosmetic industries.
