Rebuild skin and bones with shells of crabs - TVI24

biomedical and pharmaceutical industry is interested in exploring recent discoveries of new uses to give pounded crabs, among which, according to a research, tissue reconstruction from compounds extracted from their shells.

Francisco Avelelas student of 23 years of the School of Tourism and Technology of the Sea of ??Peniche, argued a week ago research masters, whereby compounds extracted from the shells of crustaceans have antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant and even protein.

‘can be used in coatings of implants to increase the time of not rejecting the prosthesis and dressings that with these antibacterial and antifungal activities, allow faster healing of tissues, “he explained to Lusa biologist.

Also, have also reuse the coating of fruits and other products to increase shelf life, the coating of tablets or less harmful to health composition of agricultural pesticides and the environment.

According to the study, can integrate the tablet formulation for weight loss, allowing ‘the lipids are not absorbed and processed by the body to prevent calories when we have a more caloric diet. “

Although with other species being caught in fishing gear, pounded the crabs have no economic value for fishing, since they are not consumed.

But, with research around the shells of crustaceans, biologists wished to give value to the feature, putting not only the fishermen catching the fish but also the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to commercially exploit these new uses industry and there is already interest from a company in this area.

In addition to the industrial application of this raw material, the company intends to come to install a new plant in Peniche, an investment of one million euros which may create half a dozen skilled jobs, Lusa said Sérgio Leandro researcher who led the Masters.

The researcher argued that there are conditions to install a biotech cluster in the city, since, like the crabs, other marine resources that may be studied and exploited for other uses other than fishing.