Carboxymethyl chitosan as an antifungal agent on gauze.

Chitosan is a biopolymer that has antifungal activity against C. albicans. Chemical modification of chitosan can provide it with new functional properties for a wide range of biological and biomedical applications. Carboxymethyl chitosan is a derivative of chitosan obtained by etherification of alkaline chitosan with monochloroacetic acid. Carboxymethyl chitosan has a higher solubility than chitosan; therefore it is more readily applicable for use in various fields. Chitosan also has antifungal activity against C. albicans. This study evaluated carboxymethyl chitosan as a gauze-coating material to be used for its antifungal properties. This study also optimized the coating process. Gauze was coated with carboxymethyl chitosan then characterized by Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectrophotometer (FTIR), X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The antifungal activities of gauze-coated samples were then tested by the diffusion method. The results show that the optimum conditions for the process of coating gauze with carboxymethyl chitosan are dipping ten times at a concentration of 1% for 50 s. Antifungal activities of carboxymethyl chitosan-coated gauze as measured by the diameter of the growth inhibition area are 0.30 cm higher than chitosan-coated gauze, which has a growth-inhibition diameter of 0.12 cm.