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  • Electrochemical Approach for Isolation of Chitin from the Skeleton of the Black Coral Cirrhipathes sp. (Antipatharia).

Electrochemical Approach for Isolation of Chitin from the Skeleton of the Black Coral Cirrhipathes sp. (Antipatharia).

Marine drugs (2020-06-06)
Krzysztof Nowacki, Izabela Stępniak, Enrico Langer, Mikhail Tsurkan, Marcin Wysokowski, Iaroslav Petrenko, Yuliya Khrunyk, Andriy Fursov, Marzia Bo, Giorgio Bavestrello, Yvonne Joseph, Hermann Ehrlich
ABSTRACT

The development of novel and effective methods for the isolation of chitin, which remains one of the fundamental aminopolysaccharides within skeletal structures of diverse marine invertebrates, is still relevant. In contrast to numerous studies on chitin extraction from crustaceans, mollusks and sponges, there are only a few reports concerning its isolation from corals, and especially black corals (Antipatharia). In this work, we report the stepwise isolation and identification of chitin from Cirrhipathes sp. (Antipatharia, Antipathidae) for the first time. The proposed method, aiming at the extraction of the chitinous scaffold from the skeleton of black coral species, combined a well-known chemical treatment with in situ electrolysis, using a concentrated Na2SO4 aqueous solution as the electrolyte. This novel method allows the isolation of α-chitin in the form of a microporous membrane-like material. Moreover, the extracted chitinous scaffold, with a well-preserved, unique pore distribution, has been extracted in an astoundingly short time (12 h) compared to the earlier reported attempts at chitin isolation from Antipatharia corals.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Sigma-Aldrich
N-Acetyl-D-glucosamine, ≥99% (HPLC)
Sigma-Aldrich
Chitinase from Streptomyces griseus, lyophilized powder (essentially salt free), ≥200 units/g solid
Sigma-Aldrich
Chitinase from Trichoderma viride, lyophilized powder, ≥600 units/g solid