| Abstract: | Chitin 1 is a biodegradable and nontoxic polysaccharide widely spread among marine and terrestrial invertebrates and fungi. It is usually obtained from waste materials of the sea food-processing industry, mainly shells of crab, shrimp, prawn and krill. Native chitin occurs in such natural composite materials usually combined with inorganics, proteins, lipids and pigments. Its isolation calls for chemical treatments to eliminate these contaminants, some of which maybe coimmercially explored. By treating crude chitin with aqueous 40～50% sodium hydroxide at 110～115℃ chitosan is obtained. However, the fully deacetylated product is rarely obtained due to the risks of side reactions and chain deplolymerization. Chitosan and chitin are closely related since both are linear polysaccharides containing 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranose and 2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranose units joined by β (1→4) glycosidic bonds. They can be distinguished by their contents of the above-mentioned units and by their solubilities in aqueous media. The acetylated units predominate in chitin while chitosan chains contain mostly deacetylated units. Chitin is soluble in a very limited number of solvents while chitosan is soluble in aqueous dilute solutions of a number of mineral and organic acids, being the most common ones, the hydrochloric and acetic acids. In aqueous dilute acid media chitosan forms salts, producing polyelectrolyte chains bearing positive charges on the nitrogen atoms of their amine groups. In fact the salt of chitosan may be formed in a separate step or as a consequence of the presence of acid in the water suspension of the neutralized form of chitosan. |
