CHARACTERIZATION, ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY, AND IN SILICO MOLECULAR DOCKING OF CHITOSAN FROM SNAIL SHELL WASTE BY ULTRASONIC TECHNIQUE

Snails are often found in Indonesia, especially at Kediri, but the snail shell has no commercial value. This research report describes the characterization and antioxidant activity of chitosan from snail shell waste (chitosan-SSW) by ultrasonic technique and analyzes the potential of chitosan as an inhibitor of receptors of free radicals using an in silico molecular docking method. Characterization of chitosan-SSW was performed to analyze the content of water, protein, and functional groups as well as molecular weight, particle size, morphology, antioxidant activity, and in silico molecular docking. We found that chitosan-SSW with ultrasonic treatment had a high degree of deacetylation (DD) and high molecular weight (MW). The characteristic of chitosan-SSW was found to be as follows: Water content of 0.43 %, protein content of 1.59 %, molecular weight of 2.198 kDa, and deacetylation degree value of 79.50 %. Importantly, chito-san-SSW had high antioxidant activity to potentially reduce free radical of DPPH with IC₅₀ value of 2.44 μg/mL. Chitosan is predicted to have the potential as an inhibitor of lipoxygenase, CYP2C9, and NADPH-oxidase.