Knowing All About Chitosan
Chitosan is one of the most abundant biopolymers which is present around the globe, only behind cellulose. It is a multipurpose biopolymer with exclusive properties and is safe, decomposable, and biocompatible. It was discovered by Rouget in 1859 when the chitin was treated along with hot potassium hydroxide solution. Right now, chitosan is largely taken out from crab shells or shrimp shells.
What are the various Applications of Chitosan?
Chitosan has a number of applications in a wide range of fields as a result of its good biocompatibility, particularly in pharmaceuticals such as equipment, drug delivery, and wound dressings, and also in other things like cosmetics, fabric and food industries, and farming and the ecological industry.
What are the Medical Uses of Chitosan
Chitosan is can be put to use in medical fields. It can be utilized as a burn dressing and wound healing agent. When the dressing gauze is treated with chitosan, the speed of wound healing can be augmented by 75%. Absorbable surgical sutures which are made of chitosan have increased mechanical strength and many advantages, which can be stowed for a longer duration and sterilized by conformist approaches, can be tinted and mixed with medicines, and can be absorbed by tissues, relieving patients from the discomfort of stitch removal.
Chitosan can constrain gastric acid and sores and is an outcome of cholesterol and triglycerides. Sulfated chitosan is pretty much similar in structure to heparin. This heparin derivative usually has an action equal to or even higher than that of heparin, offering an actual way for cheap decoagulants.
Furthermore, chitosan can also be utilized to make artificial contact lenses and kidney dialysis membranes. The microcapsules that are prepared from chitosan are a kind of decomposable polymer membrane material, which is an outstanding and promising medical sustained-release system.
What are the Research Uses of Chitosan
Chitosan is one of the utmost commonly cited polymers in scientific research, including a number of biomedical and biopharmaceutical applications such as food science and technology. Bearing in mind its outstanding biocompatibility, biodegradability, non-toxicity, and adsorption characteristics, it has been strongly indicated as an appropriate functional material.
Consequently, chitosan and its by-products have been explored in the expansion of bioadhesives, nanomaterials, wound dressings, improved drug delivery systems, medical devices, and, enteric coatings. For instance, chitosan nanofiber membranes are extremely biocompatible and might support new bone formation. Chitosan is utilized as a possible accessary for intranasal vaccine delivery methods. According to the preceding scientific research, chitosan-based nanomaterials can be used in injection drug delivery, oral drug delivery, topical drug delivery, carcinoma therapy, colon-targeted drug delivery, vaccine delivery, and gene delivery.
Chitosan is used by various drug delivery companies providing customized solutions for evolving and producing novel, biocompatible drug delivery systems. With the increasing use of Chitosan in the biomedical industry, the overall demand for this biopolymer will increase around the globe, and that’s exactly what is the present-day scenario.
