Effect of Corn Steep Liquor (CSL) and Cassava Wastewater (CW) on Chitin and Chitosan Production by Cunninghamella elegans and Their Physicochemical Characteristics and Cytotoxicity

Abstract

Microbiological processes were used for chitin and chitosan production with Cunninghamella elegans UCP/WFCC 0542 grown in different concentrations of two agro-industrial wastes, corn steep liquor (CSL) and cassava wastewater (CW) established using a 2 2 full factorial design. The polysaccharides were extracted by alkali-acid treatment and characterized by infrared spectroscopy, viscosity, thermal analysis, elemental analysis, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The cytotoxicity of chitosan was evaluated for signs of vascular change on the chorioallantoic membrane of chicken eggs. The highest biomass (9.93 g/L) was obtained in trial 3 (5% CW, 8% CSL), the greatest chitin and chitosan yields were 89.39 mg/g and 57.82 mg/g, respectively, and both were OPEN ACCESSMolecules 2014, 19 2772 obtained in trial 2 (10% CW, 4% CSL). Chitin and chitosan showed a degree of deacetylation of 40.98% and 88.24%, and a crystalline index of 35.80% and 23.82%, respectively, and chitosan showed low molecular weight (LMW 5.2 × 10 3 Da). Chitin and chitosan can be considered non-irritating, due to the fact they do not promote vascular change. It was demonstrated that CSL and CW are effective renewable agroindustrial alternative substrates for the production of chitin and chitosan.

Cowpea resistance induced against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. tracheiphilum by crustaceous chitosan and by biomass and chitosan obtained from Cunninghamella elegans

“…C. elegans was maintained at 4°C on PDA slants and transferred to a new medium every 4 months. The cell wall of this Mucorales fungi is a potential source of chitosan (Berger et al, 2014).…”

“…The biopolymer chitosan has antimicrobial activity against pathogenic fungi and the ability to induce plant defense mechanisms (Romanazzi et al, 2013). Chitosan is a biodegradable, biocompatible, a cationic and linear polymer that is essentially composed of b-1,4 D-glucosamine (GlcNAc) linked to N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues (Berger et al, 2014).…”

Dual Extraction of Crustacean and Fungal Chitosan from a Single Mucor circinelloides Fermentation

“…In fungal chitosan, higher amounts of nitrogen were observed ranging from 5.03% to 8.46%, compared to crustacean chitin where lower amounts of nitrogen were observed, from 5.21% to 6.85%. This shows that the nitrogen content of chitosan increases with a more efficient deacetylation process for Mucor circinelloides due to its absence of mineral content compared to prawn shells [40]. Overall, the carbon/nitrogen ratio was the lowest for fungal chitosan extracted from the fermentation using coffee waste (C/N ratio of 5.11).…”

Review of fungal chitosan: past, present and perspectives in Brazil

“…The values aforementioned, when compared to animal chitosan, obtained from the chitin extracted from the shell of crustaceans, still reflect lower yield. However, when taking into account the physicochemical characteristics, the ease of obtaining, the low cost purification and the little chemical waste generated by the production of fungal chitosan when compared to animal chitosan production, this difference becomes minimal [89,90] .…”