Keywords:Chitin; Chicken feet α-, β-, and γ-forms exist with different chitin microfibril orientations. The α-form has antiparallel chains and is the most abundant in nature. It occurs in the shells of crustaceans (crabs, shrimp, lobsters, etc.), in the shells and skeletons of mollusks and krill, insects, etc., and in the cell walls of fungi (mushrooms, bakers' yeast, etc.). The β-form has parallel chains and is rare in the nature. It occurs in squid pens, in the extracellular spines of the euryhaline diatom, and in pogonophore tubes. The γ-form has a mixture of anti parallel and parallel chains and is found in the cocoons of insects [8].Chitin is a natural biopolymer with a chemical structure similar to that of cellulose and is a major component of the exoskeleton of invertebrates. Therefore, crustacean waste is ideal as raw material for chitin production. The extracted chitin can be used to produce chitin derived products, such as chitosans, chito-oligosaccharides and glucosamine, but also for bioplastic production. The interest to use chitinous products in foods and pharmaceuticals is increasing due to their broad range of industrial applications [9,10].The name `chitin' is derived from the Greek word chiton' , meaning a coat of mail. It is the second most abundant biopolymer on earth after cellulose named poly β (1→4)-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose [6,11,12] as shown in figure 1.Chitin and its derivatives have many properties that make them attractive for a wide variety of applications, from food, nutrition and cosmetics to biomedicine, agriculture and the environment [13]. Their antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties make them particularly useful for biomedical applications [14] such as wound healing and dressings, weight loss agent, blood cholesterol control [15], surgical sutures, aid in cataract surgery and periodontal disease treatment [13,16]. In biotechnology, applications include wastewater treatment where chitin (as its derivative, chitosan) acts as an absorbent for heavy and radioactive metals, has use as food and feed additives [17], and in the manufacture of textile, paper, film and sponge sheet materials [5,12,18]. Chitin and its derivative chitosan are of commercial interest due to their excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, nontoxicity, chelating and adsorption power [19,20].Because of the importance of chitin, the present study has been aimed with the following objectives -To extract the chitin from the chicken feet -To find the optimum conditions of the extraction -To quantify the yield of chitin -To check the chitin extracted with standard chitin Materials and Methods MaterialsChicken feed materials were purchased from Erbil market. All the chemicals purchased from Merck were analytical grade. Preparation of chitinChicken feet were washed with cold water and dried for two days at 45°C. Chitin was extracted from chicken feet following standard AbstractThe objective of present paper is to find optimal conditions for the extraction of chitin from chicken feet, so a chemica...