A non-toxic mixture of chitin-rich crab shell powder and nanosized silver particles could be an environmentally friendly way of curbing the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes, and malaria in particular. This is according to a series of experiments led by Jiang-Shiou Hwang of the National Taiwan Ocean University. The findings are published in Springer’s journal Hydrobiologia.
A non-toxic mixture of chitin-rich crab shell powder and nanosized silver particles could be an environmentally friendly way of curbing the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes, and malaria in particular. This is according to a series of experiments led by Jiang-Shiou Hwang of the National Taiwan Ocean University. The findings are published in Springer’s journal Hydrobiologia.
Mosquitoes carry diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, the Zika virus and encephalitis. Despite more than 100 years of research on the subject, malaria remains a global health problem, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. In 2013, the number of malaria cases was estimated at 198 million, and the number of malaria-related deaths at 548 000. According to the World Health Organization, one child dies every minute from malaria in Africa. Products such as organophosphates, insect growth regulators, microbial control agents and organic solutions are used in efforts to control mosquito populations and the spread of the disease.
Hwang’s team turned their attention to chitosan or chitin, a non-toxic natural substance that has been used in wound healing, as drug carriers and in manufacturing membrane water filters and biodegradable food package coating. Chitin is found in animal tissues, such as the exoskeletons of arthropods, bird beaks and insect eggs. It can easily be chemically changed, is quite strong and, because of its abundance in nature, is cost-effective to use.
The research team first crushed and oven-dried the exoskeletons of a number of hydrothermal vent crabs (Xenograpsus testudinatus) before extracting the chitin and other minerals. The subsequent creamy-white filtrate was then mixed with silver nitrate (AgNO3) to obtain a brown–yellow solution of silver nanoparticles (AgNP).
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