Chitosan and chitin production and extraction in isolates of Cunninghamella sp.

The use of fungi to obtain chitin and chitosan has advantages such as handling, extraction, and production control, thus allowing to generate high quality chitosan. This study aimed to isolate and identify strains of Cunninghamella spp., and assess the production of biomass, chitin, and chitosan. We determined the macroscopic and microscopic phenotypic aspects of the superiors, mycelial growth rate index, consumption of glucose and nitrogen, as well as the pH variation, and the production of biomass, chitin, and chitosan. After assessing the mycelial growth speed index, considered fast, we found that the UFT-Ce08 and UFT-Ce09 isolates showed a higher growth speed. Therefore, we assessed the sporulation of the isolates, and all of them reached the concentration of 106 spores mL-1 in the period of 96 hours. The YPD was considered ideal for biomass production because it promotes an efficient consumption and synthesis of organic compounds by microorganisms. The assessment of the biomass production and the chitin and chitosan yield of nine isolates and the reference strain showed that the UFT-Ce08 isolate had the highest amount of biomass, the UFT-Ce11 isolate had the highest chitin yield, and despite having the second smallest biomass, the UFT-Ce09 isolate had the highest chitosan yield. Seven isolates showed higher chitosan yield than the reference strain. Therefore, chitosan production from this fungus can be further optimized to improve yield on a large-scale production. Chitosan production from this fungus can be further optimized to improve yield in large-scale production