Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jun 17;26(12):3694.
doi: 10.3390/molecules26123694.

Preparation and Antimicrobial Activity of Chitosan and Its Derivatives: A Concise Review

Luminita Georgeta Confederat  1 , Cristina Gabriela Tuchilus  1 , Maria Dragan  2 , Mousa Sha'at  3 , Oana Maria Dragostin  4
Affiliations
Review

Preparation and Antimicrobial Activity of Chitosan and Its Derivatives: A Concise Review

Luminita Georgeta Confederat et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Despite the advantages presented by synthetic polymers such as strength and durability, the lack of biodegradability associated with the persistence in the environment for a long time turned the attention of researchers to natural polymers. Being biodegradable, biopolymers proved to be extremely beneficial to the environment. At present, they represent an important class of materials with applications in all economic sectors, but also in medicine. They find applications as absorbers, cosmetics, controlled drug delivery, tissue engineering, etc. Chitosan is one of the natural polymers which raised a strong interest for researchers due to some exceptional properties such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, non-antigenicity, low-cost and numerous pharmacological properties as antimicrobial, antitumor, antioxidant, antidiabetic, immunoenhancing. In addition to this, the free amino and hydroxyl groups make it susceptible to a series of structural modulations, obtaining some derivatives with different biomedical applications. This review approaches the physico-chemical and pharmacological properties of chitosan and its derivatives, focusing on the antimicrobial potential including mechanism of action, factors that influence the antimicrobial activity and the activity against resistant strains, topics of great interest in the context of the concern raised by the available therapeutic options for infections, especially with resistant strains.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity; chitosan; derivatives.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 2
Figure 2
Scheme for the preparation of the trimethylated derivative of chitosan. “*” means that this units binds to other units through glycosidic bonds.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Scheme for chitosan production from chitin.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Scheme for the preparation of chitosan thiolate.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Structure of the chitosan-N-acetylcysteine derivative.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Hydroxypropyl derivatives of chitosan.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Structure of N-alkylated chitosan derivatives.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Structure of chitosan mono and dicarboxymethylates derivatives.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Synthesis method of phosphorylated chitosan.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Factors that influence the antibacterial activity of chitosan.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sonia T.A., Sharma C.P. Oral Delivery of Insulin. Woodhead Publishing; Cambridge, UK: 2014. 6–Polymers in Oral Insulin Delivery; pp. 257–310. - DOI
    1. Fonte P., Araújo F., Silva C., Pereira C., Reis S., Santos H.A., Sarmento B. Polymer-based nanoparticles for oral insulin delivery: Revisited approaches. Biotechnol. Adv. 2015;33:1342–1354. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2015.02.010. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Elsabee M.Z., Abdou E.S. Chitosan based edible films and coatings: A review. Mat. Sci. Eng. C Mater. 2013;33:1819–1841. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2013.01.010. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Agrawal U., Sharma R., Gupta M., Vyas S.P. Is nanotechnology a boon for oral drug delivery? Drug Discov. Today. 2014;19:1530–1549. doi: 10.1016/j.drudis.2014.04.011. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Thakur S., Verma A., Sharma B., Chaudhary J., Tamulevicius S., Thakur V.K. Recent developments in recycling of polystyrene based plastics. Curr. Opin. Green Sustain. Chem. 2018;13:32–38. doi: 10.1016/j.cogsc.2018.03.011. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources