Extraction of crude chitosans from squid (Illex argentinus) pen by a compressional puffing-pretreatment process and evaluation of their antibacterial activity.

Chitosan is produced by thermochemical alkaline deacetylation of chitin, but the process is usually environmentally problematic. In the present study, Illex argentinus squid pen chitin, after de-proteinization and demineralization, was pretreated with a compressional-puffing (CP) process under various puffing pressures. The CP process facilitated the increase of the crystalline index and degree of deacetylation of chitins. The CP-treated chitins were subjected to further extraction of chitosan, and four chitosan isolates (CI1-CI4) were obtained. The CP process was found to have beneficial effects in terms of increased extraction yield and increased antibacterial activity of the extracted chitosans. Moreover, the antibacterial property of the extracted chitosans seemed to be negatively related to their molecular weight (MW). Our findings showed that CI4 exhibited the highest extraction yield and the greatest antibacterial activity, and thus we recommend it as a safe and potent antibacterial agent for food, biomedicine, and other industrial usages.