Maximizing chitin and chitosan recovery yields from Fusarium verticillioides using a many-factors-at-a-time approach.

The extraction of chitin and chitosan presents challenges due to the complexity of the process and the influence of many variables. This study aimed to optimize chitin and chitosan extraction from Fusarium verticillioides by analyzing many additives and processing variables and modeling their yields using multiple linear regression (MLR) and evolutionary algorithms. FT-IR analysis confirmed the presence of characteristic bands in the extracted samples, and SEM analysis further revealed the microfibrillar appearance of the chitin and the dense, non-porous structure of the chitosan.