Chitin research revisited (original) (raw)
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The importance of chitin and its derivatives has grown significantly over the last two decades due to its renewable and biodegradable, biocompatible source, and also because of the increase in the knowledge of its functionality in the technological and biomedical applications.The present short review the biopolymer chitin and its derivatives as versatile biomaterials for many applications such pharmaceutical, food, chemistry, agribusiness and medical area, also shows the main limitations of the research groups and the industry to work with this biomaterial. This short review tries to compare many aspects of the production with chemical and biochemical process using different bio catalyser to produce different characteristics of the chitin and its derivatives. In the final considerations, the chitin and its derivatives have a great potential to design new biomaterials for many applications, depends the different characteristics of the process such, chemicals, concentration, time, temperature, bio catalyser, that could affect in the structure of the material reflecting directly with different properties, reducing the costs of the production, less time and making this biopolymer more attractive for the industry.
Chitin and Chitinases: Biomedical And Environmental Applications of Chitin and its Derivatives
Journal of Enzymes
Disposal of chitin wastes from crustacean shell can cause environmental and health hazards. Chitin is a well known abundant natural polymer extracted after deproteinization and demineralization of the shell wastes of shrimp, crab, lobster, and krill. Extraction of chitin and its derivatives from waste material is one of the alternative ways to turn the waste into useful products. Chitinases are enzymes that degrade chitin. Chitinases contribute to the generation of carbon and nitrogen in the ecosystem. Chitin and chitinolytic enzymes are gaining importance for their biotechnological applications. The presence of surface charge and multiple functional groups make chitin as a beneficial natural polymer. Due to the reactive functional groups chitin can be used for the preparation of a spectrum of chitin derivatives such as chitosan, alkyl chitin, sulfated chitin, dibutyryl chitin and carboxymethyl chitin for specific applications in different areas. The present review is aimed to summa...
Different Aspects of Chemical and Biochemical Methods for Chitin Production a Short Review
2018
The importance of chitin and its derivatives has grown significantly over the last two decades due to its renewable and biodegradable, biocompatible source, and also because of the increase in the knowledge of its functionality in the technological and biomedical applications.The present short review the biopolymer chitin and its derivatives as versatile biomaterials for many applications such pharmaceutical, food, chemistry, agribusiness and medical area, also shows the main limitations of the research groups and the industry to work with this biomaterial. This short review tries to compare many aspects of the production with chemical and biochemical process using different bio catalyser to produce different characteristics of the chitin and its derivatives. In the final considerations, the chitin and its derivatives have a great potential to design new biomaterials for many applications, depends the different characteristics of the process such, chemicals, concentration, time, temperature, bio catalyser, that could affect in the structure of the material reflecting directly with different properties, reducing the costs of the production, less time and making this biopolymer more attractive for the industry.
Modification of chitin as substrates for chitinase
African Journal of Biotechnology, 2015
Enzymes are able to bind to their substrates specifically at the active site. The proximity and orientation of the substrates strongly increase the likelihood that productive E-S complexes will arise. Treated chitin (powder or flake) is more efficient than crystalline chitin. This is because the latter is less active due to its insolubility. The structure of treated chitin is opened; this facilitates its interaction with the enzyme. The purpose of this research was to create a kind of modified chitin and study the characterization of the different types of chitin including functional groups by IR spectrophotometer, pore size, surface area and crystallinity by X-Ray diffraction. Chitin from shrimp shell was modified into colloidal, bead, amorphous and superfine chitin. The results of the IR spectra of colloidal and bead chitin showed a similar pattern with chitin powder; they peaked at 3447 and 3113 cm-1 (OH and NH 2 groups), 1645 cm-1 (amide groups N-H) and 1071 cm-1 (group CO). Superfine and amorphous chitin had similar absorbance with powder chitin but appeared to peak in the fingerprint region. Characterization of physical properties based on the pore size and surface area of powder, colloidal, superfine, amorphous and bead chitin changed the pore radius of each type of chitin due to the treatment of swelling. Crystallinity showed that specific diffractogram pattern in the three main peaks 2 was 9.5, 19.5 and 26 with varying intensity. Chitinase activity assay using modified types of chitin substrate had higher values than chitin powder. The highest activity was in amorphous chitin with values of 1.858 U/mL. This is because it has chitin chain and the rearrangement of its structure was more open, facilitating its interaction with enzyme.
Implications of molecular diversity of chitin and its derivatives
Chitin is a long unbranched polysaccharide, made up of β-1,4-linked N-acetylglucosamine which forms crystalline fiber-like structure. It is present in the fungal cell walls, insect and crustacean cuticles, nematode eggshells, and protozoa cyst. We provide a critical appraisal on the chemical modifications of chitin and its derivatives in the context of their improved efficacy in medical applications without any side effect. Recent advancement in nanobiotechnology has helped to synthesize several chitin derivatives having significant biological applications. Here, we discuss the molecular diversity of chitin and its applications in enzyme immobilization, wound healing, packaging material, controlled drug release, biomedical imaging, gene therapy, agriculture, biosensor, and cosmetics. Also, we highlighted chitin and its derivatives as an antioxidant, antimicrobial agent, anticoagulant material, food additive, and hypocholesterolemic agent. We envisage that chitin and chitosan-based nanomaterials with their potential applications would augment nanobiotechnology and biomed-ical industries.
Preparation and application of chitin and its derivatives: a review
Iranian Polymer Journal, 2014
Chitin the second most abundant polysaccharide is synthesized by an enormous number of living organisms including fungi and insects. These biopolymers have found many applications in different areas such as: packaging material, membrane for removal of metal ions, dyes and pigments in waste water engineering; anti-cholesterol, fat binding, preservative and food additive in food industry; seed and fertilizer coating, controlled agrochemical release in agriculture; surface treatment, photographic paper in pulp and paper industry; moisturizer, body creams and lotions in cosmetics and toiletries. It has also found wide applications in biomedical such as tissue engineering, drug delivery, wound dressing, scaffolds, cancer diagnosis, etc. The majority of these versatile applications are coming of its non-toxicity, biocompatibility and biodegradability. Chitin is also easily processed as gel, membrane, and nanofiber. This review emphasizes an extensive bibliography of recent basic and applied research and investigations on the aspects of this interesting biopolymer including the recovery, preparation, modification and application of chitin and its derivatives and related compounds. A new class of biocompatible and biodegradable chitin-based polyurethane (PU) elastomer was also introduced and reviewed in this study and it was found that by incorporation of chitin into the PU elastomer backbone, biocompatibility and degradation rate of the final elastomer improved. PUs are one of the synthetic biocompatible polymers with excellent physical and mechanical properties. Combination of this polymer with chitin resulted to a new tailor-made biocompatible and biodegradable polymer with improved properties. These polymers have potential applications in various applications including biomedical.
Chitin and Chitosan: Production and Application of Versatile Biomedical Nanomaterials.
Chitin is the most abundant aminopolysaccharide polymer occurring in nature, and is the building material that gives strength to the exoskeletons of crustaceans, insects, and the cell walls of fungi. Through enzymatic or chemical deacetylation, chitin can be converted to its most well-known derivative, chitosan. The main natural sources of chitin are shrimp and crab shells, which are an abundant byproduct of the food-processing industry, that provides large quantities of this biopolymer to be used in biomedical applications. In living chitin-synthesizing organisms, the synthesis and degradation of chitin require strict enzymatic control to maintain homeostasis. Chitin synthase, the pivotal enzyme in the chitin synthesis pathway, uses UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (UDPGlcNAc), produce the chitin polymer, whereas, chitinase enzymes degrade chitin. Bacteria are considered as the major mediators of chitin degradation in nature. Chitin and chitosan, owing to their unique biochemical properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, ability to form films, etc, have found many promising biomedical applications. Nanotechnology has also increasingly applied chitin and chitosan-based materials in its most recent achievements. Chitin and chitosan have been widely employed to fabricate polymer scaffolds. Moreover, the use of chitosan to produce designed-nanocarriers and to enable microencapsulation techniques is under increasing investigation for the delivery of drugs, biologics and vaccines. Each application is likely to require uniquely designed chitosan-based nano/micro-particles with specific dimensions and cargo-release characteristics. The ability to reproducibly manufacture chitosan nano/microparticles that can encapsulate protein cargos with high loading efficiencies remains a challenge. Chitosan can be successfully used in solution, as hydrogels and/or nano/microparticles, and (with different degrees of deacetylation) an endless array of derivatives with customized biochemical properties can be prepared. As a result, chitosan is one of the most well-studied biomaterials. The purpose of this review is to survey the biosynthesis and isolation, and summarize nanotechnology applications of chitin and chitosan ranging from tissue engineering, wound dressings, antimicrobial agents, antiaging cosmetics, and vaccine adjuvants.
Methods of Chitin Production a Short Review
2019
In addition to be the second most abundant natural polymer in nature, a renown has a great potential as a biomaterial in the area of biotechnology, because it is biocompatible, bio reactive and biodegradable [1,2]. Such characteristics, diverse applications in areas such as agriculture, food, environmental, and as two areas with greater focus: pharmaceutical and health [3,4]. Its structure consists of N-acetyl-d-glucosamine units with β- (1,4) bonds, having as main characteristic the insolubility in water and some organic acids [5]. Chitin belongs to the group of structural polysaccharides, together with cellulose, the second polymer being more abundant in the biosphere [6-9]. Due to its structural nature, a product release system was not found in any of the arthropod exoskeleton, in the structures of molluscs [10], in the cell wall of fungi [11,12], protozoa and bacteria, egg shells of nematodes [13,14], the shrimp fishery residue being the most widely used source [15].Throughout the decades of research and handling of this polymer, many methods of extraction have been developed, being the chemical method most found in the literature, being also used in the means of production of industrial chitin. The USA, Japan, India, Canada, China, South Korea, Russia and Norway generally use the reject of crustacean fishing for production. The use of strong acids and bases in the chitin extraction process generates critical points to the process, such as: high cost of the materials involved, generation of chemical effluent and final product with low levels of purity [16,17]. Biological processes become more attractive because they have an affordable cost of production, do not generate high risk effluent (such as the chemical process) and high-quality final product [18,19]. All the processes found in the literature are an objective: to obtain chitin by separating the proteins and minerals from the raw material used [20]. Chitin, besides having great biotechnological value, generates by-products (such as chitosan) that also have added value and even more relevant properties. In this paper we discuss the already known processes of obtaining chitin known and registered in the literature of 2010 up to the present moment: Chemical, enzymatic and biological processes relating the different methods of obtaining and with the objective to identify the particularities of each process regarding the industrial viability and economically balancing them so that the reader concludes the best process for their research, also the possibility of executing quality improvements in these processes. We will also discuss the polymorphic structures of α- and β-chitin and the different methods of obtaining each, since different processes are required in each of them due to their structures, properties and reactivity. The main objective of this review is to be able to relate the different processes of obtaining chitin with the most suitable applications for the method, based on such relation in aspects such as degree of purity and economic applicability.
Biomedical Engineering, Trends in Materials Science, 2011
estimated that 10 10-10 12 tons of chitin are biosynthesized each year (Percot et al., 2003). Unlike chitin, chitosan is produced only by some fungi from the family Mucoraceae (Roberts, 1998). Industrially, chitosan is usually produced by deN -acetylation of chitin. The various industrial sources of chitin (- ,-and-chitin) (Roberts, 1992; Tolaimate et al., 2003; Synowiecki & Al-Khateeb, 2003), as well as the processes and conditions under which this polymer is prepared (