Insects as a potential source of chitin and chitosan: Physicochemical, morphological and structural characterization. -A review

Insects are mega-diverse species. Structurally, insects are composed of the polysaccharide known as chitin and its deacetylated derivative, chitosan. Actually, exist few studies regarding to the physicochemical and structural characterization of these biopolymers in the main insect orders. The present study shows a review of chitin and chitosan obtained from insect sources; it was carried out on the similarities and differences between these biopolymers and those obtained from conventional sources. X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy with Fourier transform, and thermogravimetric analysis are presented which are important to determine how the structural, morphological and physicochemical properties of chitin and chitosan are affected depending on the source taxonomy of insects. The main techniques used for the isolation and the yields obtained are shown. Future research will be conducted to expand chitin and chitosan applications from insect in areas as diverse as food, biotechnology and biomedicine, emphasizing that insects can represent a potential raw material.Keywords: Biopolymeric materials; Physicochemical characterization; Insect order; Insect species; Chitin yield