INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES,
ENGINEERING & PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES

In this study, the extraction and characterization of chitosan was examined for their antibacterial activity. Chitosan has been successfully extracted from Shrimp exoskeleton which was collected from local market, Madurai. The obtained chitin was converted into the more useful oligmer chitosan. Chitin was produced from shrimp exoskeleton via demineralization, deproteinisation and decolorisation. Chitin was then converted to Chitosan by using deacetylation method. In order to determine characteristics features of the extracted chitosan, the yield, degree of deacetylation, size and shape was observed using a variety of techniques including FTIR, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope analysis. The results of the present study indicate that the shrimp exoskeletons are a rich source of chitosan. Extracted chitosan have potential the antibacterial activity which is used in design novel drugs from the shrimp exoskeleton and also in many fields such as pharmacological, preservative and an economically valuable one.