Chitin, Chitosan and their Derivatives from Marine Rest Raw Materials: Potential Food and Pharmaceutical Applications

Abstract

Chitin and chitosan are valuable and versatile natural biopolymers derived from a number of different marine and terrestrial sources. The word chitin comes from Greek etymology, meaning “a coat of mail.” The product was first used in 1823. The importance of chitin was discovered in the 1970s, when fishing companies were prevented from dumping shells of crabs and lobsters at sea. Research studies on these shells indicated that shell chitin has properties for a wide variety of industrial applications. Commercial interest in these biopolymers is due to the high percentage of nitrogen (6.89%) found in chitin and chitosan compared to synthetically substituted cellulose (1.25%). The first patent on chitosan production was introduced in the 1920s, and today there are several hundred patents on production of chitin and other applications. Large-scale production of the biopolymer began approximately two decades ago. Until recently, the chitin and chitosan industry suffered from issues such as the unavailability of a large and reliable supply of raw material, inconsistent quality, the presence of pollutants such as heavy metals, ash, and other foreign materials, along with high price for production and poor economic returns.