	US 11,958,918 B2
	Chitin and process for producing chitin and/or chitosan by the enzymatic and chemical pathway
Lorena Sanchez, Juvisy-sur-Orge (FR); Cecilia Socolsky, Lille (FR); Valérie Alezra, Paris (FR); Corentin Le Berre, Juvisy-sur-Orge (FR); Bénédicte Lorette, Montlhery (FR); Sophie Laurent, Nantes (FR); and Nathalie Berezina, Paris (FR)
Assigned to YNSECT, Evry-Courcouronnes (FR)
Appl. No. 16/772,423
Filed by Ynsect, Evry-Courcouronnes (FR)
PCT Filed Dec. 13, 2018, PCT No. PCT/FR2018/053285 § 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jun. 12, 2020, PCT Pub. No. WO2019/115970, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 20, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 1762307 (FR), filed on Dec. 15, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2021/0070889 A1, Mar. 11, 2021
Int. Cl. C08B 37/08 (2006.01); C08B 37/00 (2006.01); C08L 5/08 (2006.01)

CPC C08B 37/003 (2013.01) [C08B 37/0003 (2013.01); C08L 5/08 (2013.01); C12Y 304/00 (2013.01)]

6 Claims

1. A method for obtaining chitin and/or chitosan, from insects, comprising the following steps in the following order:

(i) separating cuticles from a soft part of each insect,

(ii) enzymatically hydrolyzing the cuticles with a protease to obtain a solid residue,

(iii) treating the solid residue obtained at step (ii) with a base for a duration between 5 and 60 hours with an aqueous basic solution, wherein the molar concentration of the base in aqueous solution is between 0.1 and 5 mol·L⁻¹;

(iv) recovering chitin from step (iii); and, optionally,

(v) deacetylating chitin and recovering chitosan,

wherein the insects are coleopterans and/or lepidopterans, and

wherein the protease is selected from the group consisting of aminopeptidases, metallocarboxypeptidases, serine endopeptidases, cysteine endopeptidases, aspartic endopeptidases, and metalloendopeptidases.