Effect of Protease Treatment on Oil Extractability of Carotenoids from Shrimp Waste.

Crustacean waste is an important source of natural carotenoids. Carotenoids in shrimp
waste occur as a complex with proteins. Investigations were carried out to assess the
effect of hydrolyzing shrimp waste with different proteases on the subsequent recovery
of carotenoids in vegetable oil. Hydrolyzing the shrimp waste with the bacterial
protease alcalase gave higher extraction yields in oil (28.6 μg/g waste) compared to
hydrolyzing with the plant protease papain (24.8 μg/g) or the animal protease trypsin
(25.3 μg/g). Optimized conditions for alcalase treatment and extraction of carotenoids
was determined to be hydrolysis of shrimp waste with 0.75% of alcalase at 37◦C for
150 min, adding sunflower oil to hydrolyzed waste in a ratio of 2:1, and heating at 70◦C
for 90 min. Prior hydrolysis of waste considerably reduced the heating time required
for maximum extraction of pigments, which may help in preventing the carotenoid
degradation during prolonged heating in oil.