Comparison of chitin surface structure in order Blattodea

Abstract

Chitin is widely used in various areas and it is regarded as one of the most important polysaccharide after cellulose. It has advantages such as thermal stability, biodegradability, non-toxicity and biocompatibility, which makes this biopolymer very attractive research object for biomedical, pharmaceutical, environmental, agriculture and food industries. Also, chitin is present in nature: in the cell walls of fungi and yeast, exoskeleton of Arthropods, Hydrozoa, Bryozoa, Porifera and some Anthozoan species. Within the exoskeleton, the various concentrations of water and chitin determines and defines the mechanical properties of the insects and crustaceans’ exoskeleton. Moreover, the organization of chitin fibers and pores also contributes surface and physical properties of the exoskeleton. The tropical genus of Blaberus - Blaberus giganteus is known as one of the largest cockroaches. In the present study, we preferred this organism because of the following reasons: very high survival level, easy culturing, big size, not fastidious diet, transparent wings and dorsal pronotum. A chemical method was followed for the chitin isolation from the cockroach wings and dorsal pronotum, which includes four main steps: demineralization, deproteinization, depigmentation and oil removal. This study reports production of natural chitin from the wing and the dorsal pronotum of cockroach. The physical properties of chitin were identified.