Biomedical applications of collagen and chitosan
Biomedical applications of collagen and chitosan
Date
2010
Authors
Mathew, S.
Asha, K.K.
Anandan, R.
Sankar, T.V.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Society of Fisheries Technologists (India)
Abstract
Biopolymer is a term used to refer to the polymers which are
biologically synthesized by nature. Polysaccharides are one such class
of polymers comprising of simple monosaccharide molecules connected
by ether type linkage to give a high molecular weight polymer. Among
the different polysaccharides, cellulose and chitin are the most abundant
biopolymers. Professor Henri Braconnot, Director of the Botanical Garden
in Nancy, France isolated a fraction called fungine in 1 811 from the cell
walls of mushrooms (Madhavan, 1992). Odier (1823) found similar material
in the cuticle of beetles and re-named fungine as chitin after the Greek
word chiton. The discovery of chitosan is ascribed to Rouget in 1859
(Sambasivan, 1992) and he, by boiling chitin in KOH, produced chitosan
soluble in organic acids. Now it is understood that chitin is soluble in
dimethyl acetamide containing 5% lithium chloride (Rutherford and Austin,
1978) and insoluble in aqueous acetic acid and chitosan's solubility is
reverse to that of chitin in these two solvents. The nitrogen content of
chitin is usually less than 7%, while that of chitosan is more than 7%.
It was only in 1950, the structure of chitosan was resolved. Collagen is
produced from air bladder of fish and chitosan from prawn shell.
Description
Keywords
Biomedical applications, collagen, chitosan, water treatment, agriculture
Citation
Proceedings of the National Seminar on Conservation and Sustainability of Coastal Living Resources of India, 1-3 December 2009, Cochin, ed.by Meenakumari, B. et.al 628-634