Simplified Method of Preparing Colloidal Chitin Used For Screening of Chitinase- Producing Microorganisms

A simplified and efficient method of preparing colloidal chitin from inexpensive crab shell flakes was developed. It modifies some steps of existing techniques to provide significant saving in effort and materials for colloidal chitin preparation. In colloidal chitin preparation, unless the initial chitin flakes are ground to a fine powder, it becomes difficult to later separate the chitin chunks from the precipitated colloidal chitin. The modified technique reported here involves the use of simple everyday lab materials to extract colloidal chitin from crab shell flakes, without the need of powdering the chitin flakes to a uniformly fine size. Utility of the colloidal chitin obtained was shown by using it in plate assays to screen for extracellular chitinase producers, and labeling it with Remazol Brilliant Blue (RBB) for chitinase assays.