Jiangnan University, School of Biotechnology, Jiangnan University Wuxi, Jiansu, China.
Curr Pharm Biotechnol. 2020;21(14):1433-1443. doi: 10.2174/1389201021666200605104939.
Chitin stands at second, after cellulose, as the most abundant polysaccharide in the world. Chitin is found naturally in marine environments as it is a crucial structural component of various marine organisms.
Different amounts of waste chitin and chitosan can be discovered in the environment. Chitinase producing microbes help to hydrolyze chitin waste to play an essential function for the removal of chitin pollution in the Marine Atmosphere. Chitin can be converted by using chemical and biological methods into prominent derivate chitosan. Numerous bacteria naturally have chitin degrading ability.
Chitin shows promise in terms of biocompatibility, low toxicity, complete biodegradability, nontoxicity, and film-forming capability. The application of these polymers in the different sectors of biomedical, food, agriculture, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals could be lucrative. Moreover, the most recent achievement in nanotechnology is based on chitin and chitosan-based materials.
In this review, we examine chitin in terms of its natural sources and different extraction methods, chitinase producing microbes and chitin, chitosan together with its derivatives for use in biomedical and agricultural applications.
壳聚糖是继纤维素之后世界上第二丰富的多糖，广泛存在于海洋环境中，是多种海洋生物的重要结构组成部分。
环境中可以发现不同量的废弃壳聚糖和壳聚糖。几丁质酶产生微生物有助于水解几丁质废物，对海洋大气中几丁质污染的去除起到至关重要的作用。壳聚糖可以通过化学和生物方法转化为重要的衍生壳聚糖。许多细菌天然具有降解几丁质的能力。
壳聚糖具有良好的生物相容性、低毒性、完全可生物降解性、无毒性和成膜能力。这些聚合物在生物医学、食品、农业、化妆品和制药等不同领域的应用具有广阔的前景。此外，纳米技术的最新成果基于壳聚糖和壳聚糖基材料。
在这篇综述中，我们研究了壳聚糖的天然来源和不同提取方法、产几丁质酶的微生物和壳聚糖、壳聚糖及其衍生物在生物医学和农业应用中的用途。
