Chitosan Research Paper

• Chitosan

Chitosan is derivative of chitin, which, the second most abundant natural polysaccharide on earth due to its properties such as antimicrobial activity, biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, chelating ability and mucoadhesion, chitosan has a wide range of applications, as it is economical and easily available. Especially, chitosan has many biomedical applications, involved accelerated wound healing by wound dressing 1 and as an effective carrier for drug delivery systems2. It is used in agriculture for fertilizer production3 and is often used in food processing as an ingredient, food-coating material as preservative material4. It is also promoted in the United States and some other countries as a dietary fiber to reduce fat absorption. And recently Chitosan has

Chitin occurs as a structural mucopolysaccharide in a wide range of sorts. For example, chitin can be found in the exoskeletons of arthropods such as crustaceans, as well as in the endoskeletons of cephalopods. In addition, chitin is also present in the cell walls of most fungi and in algae. Chitosan, on the other hand, is much less abundant in nature and so far it has only been found in the cell walls of certain fungal sorts7-9. French scientist Henri Braconnot was first discovered chitin during his studies on mushroom in 1811. He initially named chitin fungine7. Later, in 1823, the term chitin was proposed by Odier, who found the same compound in the cuticles of insects. The term “chitin” is derived from the Greek word “chiton” signifying nail coat10. C. Rouget was discovered Chitosan in 1859 when he treated chitin in boiling and concentrated potassium hydroxide. Rouget named this structure “modified chitin”. This derivative of chitin was renamed chitosan by F. Hoppe-Seyler in 18947-8. Currently chitin is mainly used as the raw material for chitosan, whose application fields include cosmetics, agriculture, dietetics, pharmacology, gene therapy, and