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Abstract
It was found that regenerated chitin obtained by a concentrated alkali treatment at a low temperature is water soluble. Chitin with 38% deacetylation, obtained by treatment with 15 wt.% NaOH at 10°C for four days, showed very good solubility in water at room temperature; whereas, eight days at 3°C were needed to prepare soluble chitin with 25% deacetylation. For this low-temperature deacetylation, two conditions were necessary to make α-chitin water soluble; first, an extended alkali treatment (e.g., at least four days in 15% alkali solution at 3°C) was required; and second, the degree of deacetylation required was more than 25%. The structural difference in regenerated chitin samples prepared at 3 and 25°C with the same degree of deacetylation (30%) were examined by X-ray diffraction and deamination analyses suggesting that the distribution of N-acetyl groups in the former chitin molecule was more random than those in the latter. This conclusion was supported by enzymatic analyses with chitinase or lysozyme.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We express our heartfelt appreciation to Professor S. Watabe of the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, the University of Tokyo, for his valuable advice over the methods used in this paper.