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Brazil: Shrimp waste processing plant opened
Posted On: October 25, 2011The Technology Development Park (Padetec) and the company Montairo Pescado developed and mounted a pilot plant that converts shrimp shells into high value products.
The plant is located in Itarema, on the west coast of Ceará, and according to the superintendent of Padetec, Afrânio Craveiro, it represents a milestone in the national shrimp production.
This initiative was supported by the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture (MPA), the Northeast Bank of Brazil and by Polymar Industria y Comercio Ltd.
This plant will be able to take advantage of shrimp waste, transforming it into high value added products such as biopolymers (chitin and chitosan).
Global Glucosamine Market to Reach 46.6 Thousand Metric Tons by 2017, According to a New Report
Posted On: September 4, 2011The research report titled “Glucosamine: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts Inc., provides a comprehensive review of the Glucosamine market, current market trends, key growth drivers, new research findings on Glucosamine, new product introductions and launches, recent corporate initiatives, and profiles of major/niche global as well as regional market participants. The report provides annual sales estimates and projections for Glucosamine for the years 2009 through 2017 for the following geographic markets – US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of World. The study also presents historic data for the period 2003 through 2008.
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Chitosan Product Provides a New and Effective Way of Clotting Arterial Bleeds
Posted On: June 2, 2011Celox, a flaked form of the clotting agent chitosan, is revolutionizing how military and medical personnel deal with bleeds, from the smallest scrapes to full-blown arterial fire hoses. Celox is easy to use — you just pour it on an open wound and apply pressure — and both safer and faster-acting than similar products. The best bit, though, is that the active ingredient, chitosan, is extracted from the shells of crabs and shrimp.
Chitosan is a polysaccharide — a complex carbohydrate, like starch — that is extracted from chitin, the structural component of shrimp and crab exoskeletons. Chitosan is water soluble, bioadhesive, biodegradable, and biocompatible. In its base state, chitosan is an excellent clotting (hemostatic) agent, but the form used in Celox has been “reacted” to create an enhanced and purified product. Celox, in short, is ideal for augmenting the human body’s innate ability to clot wounds.
The real magic of Celox is that it doesn’t actually form blood clots, which would be dangerous; rather, the act mixing blood into Celox activates it, turning it into an artificial, gel-like clot. This kind of clot is incredibly effective at staunching blood flow, with 100% of swine test subjects surviving a cut femoral artery. If all that wasn’t awesome enough, Celox is incredibly fast-acting — it can clot blood in 30 seconds, where normal blood takes 800 seconds — and it even works with blood that has been thinned by warfarin or harparin, or in hypothermic conditions.
Chitosan being tested to improve healing for oral mucositis
Posted On: April 6, 2011Using a substance found in the shells of shrimp and crabs, former military physician William Wiesmann developed a bandage that stopped soldiers from bleeding to death on the battlefield.
Now the CEO of Claremont- based biotechnology company Synedgen, Wiesmann hopes to take the blood-clotting and bacteria-killing properties of the substance to treat the painful mouth sores that plague many cancer patients.
Synedgen received last month a $2 million award from the National Institutes of Health to produce a treatment that prevents infection and improves healing for oral mucositis, a common debilitating side effect from chemotherapy.
Proposed full-scale chitin/chitosan production facility in Newfoundland, Canada has vaulted significant hurdle
Posted On: March 25, 2011A proposal to construct a full-scale chitin/chitosan production facility adjacent to its sprawling crab and shrimp processing plant in Bay de Verde has vaulted a significant hurdle. But the same proposal that was so vociferously opposed in Old Perlican – just 12 kilometres away – several years ago also has its share of critics in Bay de Verde.
The seven-member Bay de Verde municipal council voted 4-3 to grant approval-in-principle to the project at a March 3 council meeting, with Mayor Gerard Murphy casting the deciding vote in favour of the application.
Also supporting the application were deputy mayor Gordon Coish and councillors Gerard Broderick and Carrie Potter.
Mayor Murphy chaired the meeting, and said there were questions about air emissions, the discharge of effluent into the marine ecosystem, and the transport and use of chemicals such as hydrochloric acid and potassium hydroxide, two important chemicals in the chitin production process.
There were also concerns expressed about some ongoing issues, including odour problems and the ongoing dumping of shell waste at a local site.
Murphy was initially apprehensive about the project, but after receiving more information, has warmed up to the idea.
“I greet this application with cautious optimism,” he said. “If the company is willing to come in and make a multi-million-dollar investment into a technology that is new in the province … that investment, given the volatility of the fishing industry, can only lead to an extended longevity of the facility in the community.”
“That was one of the biggest considerations that I had to think about,” he added.
But the roughly $5 million project is still far from receiving the green light, with environmental approvals still to come, and some community leaders still not convinced the project is in the best interest of the town.
US launch of chitosan-soaked Tencel C fiber at upcoming Los Angeles Textile Show & Texworld USA
Posted On: March 16, 2011Textile World: Lenzing of Austria recently launched Tencel C, comprising Tencel fiber soaked with chitosan, made of chitin extracted from crab shells. Lenzing reports it adds skin-soothing cosmetic benefits to Tencel, and in a scientific wear study, stockings made with Tencel C were shown to protect the skin, allow it to retain more moisture, improve skin elasticity and stimulate skin cell regeneration. Lenzing is promoting the fiber for use in apparel worn next to the skin and in home furnishings such as bed sheets. There also are potential wound-healing applications.
“Our research team worked on Tencel C for almost ten years,” said Alexandra Steger, project manager marketing apparel, Textile Fibers, Lenzing AG. “We have attached the chitosan so that it can’t wash off or be stripped off. The fiber is spun, and the chitosan solution penetrates into its porous structure. The fiber is then finished. Cellulose and chitosan are very similar, so we can combine the botanic and oceanic stories,” she said, pointing out cellulose’s botanic source and chitosan’s oceanic source. “The molecules differ only at one point where chitosan has an amino group.
Lenzing will launch Tencel C in the United States at the upcoming Los Angeles International Textile Show and Texworld USA.
Medtronic Buys Chitin Gel Technology For Sinus Treatment
Posted On: February 27, 2011Medical device maker Medtronic Inc. said Friday it purchased a chitin gel technology that could be used to control bleeding and speed up healing in surgical procedures that treat sinus conditions.
Medtronic said the gel is a polymer produced from the chitin of shellfish and squid. Chitin is found in the exoskeletons of insects and some crustaceans. In humans, it is used to aid the healing of wounds and as a biodegradable surgical thread. The technology was developed by Robinson Squidgel Ltd., the University of Adelaide in Australia, and the University of Otago in New Zealand.
Medtronic, which is the world’s largest medical device company, did not disclose terms of the deal.
The company believes the gel technology could be used in functional endoscopic sinus surgery, a type of procedure used to treat conditions including recurring acute or chronic infective sinus inflammation. Fiber optic scopes are used to diagnose and assist in the procedure, and computer models help identify diseased areas in the patient’s sinuses. Medtronic said that around 525,000 procedures are performed in the U.S. each year, and the most common side effects are bleeding and adhesions, or scars that form at the surgical site.
Chitosan antimicrobial coating potential found for curbing Listeria, according to new study
Posted On: January 28, 2011The study by Haiqiang Chen et al, published in the Journal of Food Science, found that use of chitosan, particularly when used in coatings, was able to inhibit the growth of LM and could potentially be an effective tool for the fish processing sector in efforts to tackle the bacteria.
The group said they launched the project as LM-contamination of ready-to-eat foods, such as cold-smoked salmon, is a common cause of foodbourne illness outbreaks and usually occurs in the post-processing phase. In 2009 the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that 15 per cent of all smoked fish is tainted with LM.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the performance of chitosan-based edible coatings and films incorporating three generally recognized as safe (GRAS) antimicrobials; sodium lactate (SL), sodium diacetate (SD), and potassium sorbate (PS), against L. monocytogenes on cold-smoked salmon.
Salmon samples were surface-inoculated with a 5-strain cocktail of LM to a final concentration of 4.4 log CFU/cm2 and then either coated with chitosan solutions or wrapped with chitosan films with or without the antimicrobials. The samples were then vacuum packaged and stored at 4°C for 30 days.
The scientists found that chitosan coatings, with or without the antimicrobials, consistently showed higher efficacy against LM than chitosan films with the same compositions.
CANADA: Shrimp shell processing facility to be built in Newfoundland
Posted On: January 27, 2011A shrimp shell processing facility will be established in Twillingate with the help of a $500,000 loan from the provincial government, it was announced today. The initiative is expected to create up to 19 full-time jobs during periods the facility is operational.
According to a news release, the facility will dry and compact shrimp waste to produce two products: dried shrimp shells for shipment to China (to be processed into contamination-free glucosamine which is a non-vitamin, non-mineral dietary supplement), and a protein byproduct to be targeted to the aquaculture industry as a component of feedstock. The facility will be operated by Eastern Star Group Canada Inc., a partnership between Canadian and Chinese entrepreneurs that is focused on commercial utilization of marine-based materials.
TENCEL C – a new dimension in textile cosmetics containing chitosan
Posted On: January 14, 2011Lenzing Group out of Austria is presenting the new fiber innovation TENCEL C at Heimtextil in Frankfurt. After many years of research work, cosmetic properties can now be combined with the well-known skin-sensory advantages of TENCEL.
The TENCEL fiber is well-known for its positive skin properties. Due to its smooth fiber structure, it is particularly silky next to the skin. Its botanic origin – TENCEL is extracted from wood – means that it has particularly good breathing properties and is the Moisture Manager among textile fibers. In combination with Chitosan, a natural product from the ocean, this now makes TENCEL the fiber that provides cosmetic benefits.
A scientific wear test comparing TENCEL C with cotton revealed that TENCEL C achieves better results. The blind study was carried out with 32 test participants with healthy skin wearing a stocking of TENCEL C on one leg and a cotton stocking on the other leg for two weeks. A dermatologist evaluated the skin of the test participants. In 41% of the test subjects, the leg that wore TENCEL C looked better with reduced dehydration, fewer wrinkles and less cornification and micro-fractures.
In general the level of moisture of the skin drops less with TENCEL C. TENCEL C acts like a moisture reservoir and prevents the loss of moisture of the skin. As a result the skin barrier is intact and offers protection from environmental influences. Another study tested cell renewal. Once again it was shown that with TENCEL C, skin cells are renewed more quickly when a wound is healing.
After many years of research work, Lenzing has succeeded in soaking a fiber with the biopolymer Chitosan and in transferring this to large-scaleproduction. Chitosan is difficult to control at production level. It is water-soluble and after several processing steps, it can dissipate from the fiber.
The research scientists at Lenzing developed a special technology to prevent this. Because of Lenzing’s expertise and innovative manufacturing techniques, TENCEL C can easily take up to 50 wash cycles in a commercially available washing machine without losing its cosmetic properties.
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