permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:

> How does chitin fit into this picture?
> I think there may actually be a few sanet articles on this from way back.

Neal might be interested in this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chitin (C8H13O5N)n (IPA: [ˈkaɪtɪn]) is a long-chain polymeric polysaccharide of beta-glucose that forms a hard, 
semitransparent material found throughout the natural world. Chitin is the main component of the cell walls of fungi. It 
is also a major component of the exoskeletons of arthropods, such as the crustaceans (e.g. crab, lobster, and shrimp), 
and the insects (e.g. ants, beetles, and butterflies), and of the beaks of cephalopods (e.g. squids, and octopuses). 
Chitin has also proven useful for several medical and industrial purposes.

Title: PHYSIOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND BIOACTIVITY OF FUNGAL CHITIN AND CHITOSAN
http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=172249
Interpretive Summary: We continue to look for ways to reduce losses of fresh produce to postharvest decays. Consumers 
are increasingly demanding lower or no chemical residues on produce due to health and environmental concerns; but many 
fungi are becoming more tolerant to the common fungicides. Chitin is a component of fungi such as mushrooms. We 
extracted chitin from various fungi, wounded and treated apples with the chitin and then inoculated them with the 
postharvest decay causing fungi Botrytis cinerea and Penicillium expansum. Chitin from the fungi made the harvested 
apples more resistant to fungi. The apple industry may find chitin useful as an alternative to postharvest decay control 
using fungicides. The mushroom industry may find the production of chitin from the waste resulting from mushroom 
production to be a profitable solution for the use of this waste.

Technical Abstract: Chitinous material was extracted from mycelia of Aspergillus niger and Mucor rouxii grown in yeast 
peptone dextrose broth for 15 and 21 days, respectively. The extracted material was characterized for purity, degree of

--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Venaura Farm
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://market-farming.com/venaurafarm
http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech