Sardine (Sardina pilchardus) is a common Mediterranean pelagic fish known as an important source of marine products in Morocco. In parallel, the high processing of sardines produces a huge quantity of sardine scales that causes environmental problem. Using the sardine scales for the production of chitin can enhance the economic value of sardine factories, and can reduce their adverse impact on nature. This study aimed to extract and characterize chitin for the first time from sardine scales basing on demineralization and deproteinization. The physicochemical structure of chitin extracted from sardine scales was determined by FT-IR, TGA, XRD, SEM, and EDAX. FTIR analysis revealed the β-form of the chitin extracted. The molecular weight (Mw) and the degree of Acetylation (DA) obtained were about 145KDA and 76% respectively. TGA determined thermal stability for the obtained chitin, which ranged between 150 to 250°C. XRD showed the amorphous structure of ß-chitin extracted and the crystalline index value of the chitin extracted (CrI) was 68%. While SEM and EDAX exposed that the chitin extracted has characterized by long chains and high purity. The results obtained in this current study showed that Sardina pilchardus can be used as a new alternative source of chitin
