Elemental Analysis of Chitin from Extraction of Different Ages of Leucaena Leucephala with Hydrochloric Acid

Abstract

Chitin is a biopolymer that forms the exoskeleton of arthropods, and found in the shells of crustacea and in the cell walls of certain fungi and algae. Commercially, chitin is obtained from processing the outer skeleton of crustacea such as shrimp, crab, prawn, and crayfish. Extraction of chitin was carried out using various chemical procedures. The study aim is to examine characteristic of chitin for different aging of Leucaena leucephala pods using hydrochloric acid (HCl). Different aging of the raw materials was used to study their effect of nitrogen content in the pods. In this study, chitin in Leucaena leucephala was extracted using chemical methods by using hydrochloric acid (HCl). The extracted chitin was then characterized by using elemental analyzer. The results obtained revealed that the percentage of nitrogen and carbon content in the samples was significantly reduced after extraction. Elemental analysis, the N% value in younger pods is closer to the theoretical value than adult pods. The purity of chitin in younger pods is higher than chitin in the adult pods.