Recovery of protein, chitin, carotenoids and glycosaminoglycans from Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) processing waste

AbstractShrimp head waste is a major byproduct of crustacean processing in North-eastern Brazil and represents an interesting source of bioactive molecules. Additionally, its use increases the sustainability of processing fishery products. The present study reports a process developed for recovering bioactive molecules from shrimp heads through autolysis. A protein hydrolysate (120±0.4g) formed by a 9% (w/v) solution was recovered and lyophilized from 1kg of shrimp heads. Approximately 195±0.5mg of carotenoids was recovered as an ethanolic extract. The recovery of chitin and chitosan were 25±2gkg−1 and 17±4gkg−1 wet processing waste, respectively. Chitosans were characterized by 13C NMR, and FT-IR analysis and exhibited a variable degree of deacetylation (60–80%). Sulfated glycosaminoglycans that exhibited electrophoretic migration similar to mammalian standards were also recovered (79±2mgkg−1 wet processing waste), and their degradation products suggested the presence of C6-sulfated heparan sulfate. These data point to the feasibility of an integrated process for isolating highly bioactive molecules, such as sulfated- and amino-polysaccharides, with a broad spectrum of applications from shrimp processing waste