Chitosan as an Advanced Healthcare Material

Abstract

Chitin and chitosan are renewable biopolymers with inherently favourable properties allowing diverse chemical modifi cation that generates novel materials ideal for biomedical applications. Chitin itself has very poor aqueous solubility and hence found limited utility. For this reason the use of chitosan, in particular, modifi ed chitosan, has increased exponentially in biomedical applications in recent years. Th e review of chitosan as a health care material includes wound healing or tissue regeneration, drug delivery and antimicrobial studies. Specialist applications are vast and due to the shortened publication process, biomedical applications of chitosan may warrant more frequent reviews.In this review, highlights of recent research on the synthesis and analysis of chitin and chitosan based nanomaterials and nanofi bres will be covered. A detailed review of the synthetic transformation of chitosan that further added value by enabling diverse application has been discussed. Th e value of copolymerization and graft ing of biodegradable synthetic polymers with chitosan in order to improve stability and control of the functional biomaterial has been a major driver in the biotechnological innovation.

Chitosan Derivatives as Important Biorefinery Intermediates. Quaternary Tetraalkylammonium Chitosan Derivatives Utilized in Anion Exchange Chromatography for Perchlorate Removal

“…demonstrated that the presence of a quaternary ammonium functionality in a resin improved retention [ 34 ]. Chitosan in its native form is positively charged as the amino group present has a pKa of ~6.5; therefore, the polymer can bind to negatively charged ions such as [ 35 ]. Protonated chitosan in an acidic medium has been shown to remove from solution [ 36 ].…”

Amphiphilic Chitosan Porous Membranes as Potential Therapeutic Systems with Analgesic Effect for Burn Care

“…The ideal structure of chitosan, as a primary derivative of chitin, is based on linear repeating units of β-(1-4)-2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranose, in which the acetylated units of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine of the chitin are deacetylated to become D-glucosamine units [ 34 ]. The functionality of this cationic biopolymer provided by the two hydroxyl groups (at C3 and C6) and one amine group (at C2) allows extensive adjustment of physical, chemical, mechanical and biological properties [ 35 ].…”