Cargill Inc.

Weiyu Fan

James R Trinkle

Ki-Oh Hwang

John Andrew Bohlmann

James Donald Steinke

Joseph P Henning

The invention provides a method of producing chitosan using pressures greater than 0 PSIG. The invention also provides fungal chitosan compositions.

Chitosan production

A highly deacetylated chitosan obtained from microbial biomass, a method of obtaining chitosan from microbial biomass, and biomass for making chitosan are disclosed. The method includes providing chitin-containing biomass; reacting the chitin-containing biomass in a caustic solution of greater than 25 percent alkali at a reaction temperature greater than 95&#xb0; C. for a reaction period of at least 10 hours to convert the chitin in the biomass to chitosan; and separating the chitosan from the caustic solution.

Chitosan and method of preparing chitosan

Glucosamine suitable for human or animal consumption is disclosed. The glucosamine is derived from microbial biomass containing chitin. Suitable starting materials include substantially uniform microbial fungal sources, such as fungal sources derived fromsp.,sp.,sp. and combinations thereof. Methods of producing glucosamine by acid hydrolysis of fermented fungal biomass are also disclosed.

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Minnetonka, MN, United States of America

Weiyu Fan