Renuka Vinothkumar

By Renuka Vinothkumar and Janet Paterson

Chitin, the shell material of prawn, is a biodegradable polymer and environmentally biocompatible with low toxicity. Chitosan is the deacetylated form of chitin, which consists of poly-D-glucosamine units with no or few N-acetyl-D-glucosamine units. Commercial applications of these natural polymers are increasing in various sectors. Therefore, in addition to the environmental benefit, it may be economical to recover chitin from prawn waste. Chitosan is soluble in various organic acids, solvents and water. The poor solubility of chitin is the major limiting factor in its use in industrial applications. Number of studies have investigated to overcome the solubility problem of chitin. This research focuses on a new way of developing water-soluble colloidal chitin (WSCC) from prawn waste and investigates its fundamental rheological and antibacterial properties. WSCC films studied during this research may be used in food packaging or in medical applications. The use of WSCC biodegradable films will protect the environment in the future and will be an effective alternative to plastics that threatens the environment. The antibacterial study may be applied in pharmaceutical, medical and food packaging and coating applications. This research was conducted at the University of New South Wales, Australia in 2008.

Part of the book: Chitin and Chitosan

By Renuka Vinothkumar, Frank Lucien and Janet Paterson

Most of the prawns are processed as frozen or cooked prawn meat. The remaining waste (heads, tails and shells) is used as a feed supplement or is directly discarded onto the land by food industries, seafood markets and capture fisheries. Disposal onto the land allows prawn waste to decompose easily in the open air and causes high environmental pollution. At the same time, many valuable compounds present in the waste are lost. It has been accepted that those from marine/brackish waters are considered ‘shrimps’ while their counterparts from fresh waters are considered ‘prawns’. There is a need to generate value-added products from these waste materials from an environmental and economical point of view. The recovery of value-added products from waste material is beneficial in two ways: firstly, to solve the waste disposal problem itself and secondly, to generate additional income. This research particularly focuses on the management of prawn waste and this small-scale research was carried out using the hand-peeled waste of school prawns. The major aim of this research is the recovery and characterization of one of the major valuable components of prawn waste called the ‘astaxanthin complex’ and its separation from the organic solvent using the antisolvent precipitation technique, which is an innovative approach.

Part of the book: Agricultural Waste

By Renuka Vinothkumar

Astaxanthin is a well-known antioxidant; however, it is mostly used in aquafeed to enrich the animal flesh color. Its antioxidant properties are undervalued and underutilized in human applications. This antioxidant has many potential benefits in improving the human immune system functions including Alzheimer’s disease, treating aging problems, etc. However, there is minimal scientific evidence to justify these claims. This meta-analysis investigates the available literature in relation to the direct application of astaxanthin in humans for various health benefits. This article mainly focuses on the clinical research conducted directly on human subjects testing various health benefits of astaxanthin over the past ten years. Some research articles published during this period may have been missed unintentionally.

Part of the book: Chemistry of Food Additives [Working title]