Preparation of glucosamine hydrochloride from alfa-chitin by microwave assisted acid hydrolysis

Abstract

Glucosamine hydrochloride (GlcNHCl) is a well known neutrapharmaceutical agent prescribed for osteoarthritis patients. Hydrolysis of shrimp shell α-chitin in concentrated hydrochloric acid under elevated temperature is a general method for production of GlcNHCl. To speed up the hydrolysis process, microwave assisted hydrolysis is studied in this work. With microwave irradiation, the hydrolysis is faster comparing to the conventional heating. Only 12 minutes of reaction time is required to complete the hydrolysis when the microwave is utilized while 90-120 minutes is generally required for conventional heating. The reaction typically gave 55% isolated yield with 99-100% pure of GlcNHCl.