Chitin and chitosan

Intestinal microbial communities of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) may be improved by feeding a Hermetia illucens meal/low-fishmeal diet

With demands and reliance on aquaculture still growing, there are various challenges to allow sustainable growth and the shift from fishmeal (FM) to other protein sources in aquafeed formulations is one of the most important. In this regard, interest in the use of insect meal (IM) in aquafeeds has grown rapidly. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to assess the effects of dietary IM from Hermetia illucens (Hi) larvae included in a low-FM diet on gut microbial communities of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), in terms of both composition and function of microbiome. A feeding trial was conducted using 192 trout of about 100-g mean initial weight. Fish were fed in quadruplicate (4 tanks/diet) for 131 days with two diets: the control (Ctrl) contained 20% of FM as well as other protein sources, whereas the Hi diet contained 15% of Hi larvae meal to replace 50% of the FM contained in the Ctrl diet. High-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene was used to identify the major feed and gut bacterial taxa, whereas Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) analysis was performed on gut bacterial genomes to identify the major active biological pathways. The inclusion of IM led to an increase in Firmicutes, mainly represented by Bacilli class and to a drastic reduction of Proteobacteria. Beneficial genera, such as Lactobacillus and Bacillus, were enriched in the gut of fish fed with the Hi diet, whereas the number of bacteria assigned to the pathogenic Aeromonas genus was drastically reduced in the same fish group. The metagenome functional data provided evidence that dietary IM inclusion can shape the metabolic activity of trout gut microbiota. In particular, intestinal microbiome of fish fed with IM may have the capacity to improve dietary carbohydrate utilization. Therefore, H. illucens meal is a promising protein source for trout nutrition, able to modulate gut microbial community by increasing the abundance of some bacteria taxa that are likely to play a key role in fish health.

Non-isothermal kinetics of thermal degradation of chitosan

BACKGROUND

Chitosan is the second most abundant nitrogen containing biopolymer in nature, obtained from the shells of crustaceans, particularly crabs, shrimp and lobsters, which are waste products of seafood processing industries. It has great potential application in the areas of biotechnology, biomedicine, food industries, and cosmetics. Chitosan is also capable of adsorbing a number of metal ions as its amino groups can serve as chelation sites. Grafted functional groups such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, sulfate, phosphate, and amino groups on the chitosan have been reported to be responsible for metal binding and sorption of dyes and pigments. The knowledge of their thermal stability and pyrolysis may help to better understand and plan their industrial processing.

RESULTS

Thermogravimetric studies of chitosan in air atmosphere were carried out at six rates of linear increasing of the temperature. The kinetics and mechanism of the thermal decomposition reaction were evaluated from the TG data using recommended from ICTAC kinetics committee iso-conversional calculation procedure of Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose, as well as 27 mechanism functions. The comparison of the obtained results showed that they strongly depend on the selection of proper mechanism function for the process. Therefore, it is very important to determine the most probable mechanism function. In this respect the iso-conversional calculation procedure turned out to be the most appropriate.

CONCLUSION

Chitosan have excellent properties such as hydrophilicity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, antibacterial, non-toxicity, adsorption application. The thermal degradation of chitosan occurs in two stages. The most probable mechanism function for both stages is determined and it was best described by kinetic equations of n-th order (Fn mechanism). For the first stage, it was established that n is equal to 3.0 and for the second stage - to 1.0 respectively. The values of the apparent activation energy E, pre-exponential factor A in Arrhenius equation, as well as the changes of entropy ΔS≠, enthalpy ΔH≠ and free Gibbs energy ΔG≠ for the formation of the activated complex from the reagent are calculated.