Making the most of shrimp waste
Scientists have found a way to produce valuable products from shrimp waste without the use of harsh chemicals.

A group working at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand used a Lactobacillus bacteria species to ferment the shrimp shells and heads. Fermentation produced chitosan and similar products that have uses in the pharmaceutical, textile, food and cosmetic industries at levels equivalent to chemical method.

The fermentation process also generated protein-rich liquor that could be used for human consumption. The researchers hope that their method will prove more cost effective and cut down on highly alkaline chemical by-products.

Scaffold mixes best of both worlds
Researchers in Singapore have developed a scaffold that has the potential to help skin recover from extensive injury like serious burns. The scaffold creates a network of fibres that new tissue can grow over speeding up recovery times.

They produced a novel scaffold hoping to fuse both synthetic polymers and natural materials to incorporate the advantages of both and to compensate for the disadvantages of the other. The hybrid scaffold was successfully implanted into rats without any signs of rejection.

A spoonful of sugar?
Compounds derived from sugars have shown promise as potential insecticides. An international research group expressed interest in sugar derivatives as they show some similarities to current insecticides. These novel sugar compounds are also likely to prove more environmentally friendly than synthetic chemicals, an important consideration for approval.

The sugars were actually found to be more potent against fruitfly than the reference insecticide, but were less successful against houseflies. The compounds showed very low toxicity in a crustacean commonly used to measure the aquatic toxicity of pesticides.

Sniffing out a defect
Virgin olive oils have rigorous quality requirements and chemical analysis may be able aid this process. At the moment they require a taste test by a trained panel that checks the oil for defects.

An Italian research group believes that they can aid the panel using analytical methods. They used chromatography and mass spectroscopy to analysis the air in the oil bottles. They were successfully able to detect levels of chemicals indicating oil defects and their results agreed with the panel’s. They hope their research will help with identifying particular defects and help to train new assessors.