Much research has focused on chitosan as a source of bioactive material during past few decades. However, the high molecular weight of chitosan, which results in poor solubility at neutral pH and its high solution viscosity, limits its use in the food, cosmetics, agriculture and health industry. Chitosan is natural, non toxic, copolymer of glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine
prepared from chitin by deacetylation, which in turn, is a major component of the shells of crustaceans. It is found commercially in the waste products of the marine food processing industry. Various chemical modifications have been investigated to try and improve chitosan’s solubility and thus to increase its range of applications. Considering this limitation, researchers are now concentrating on conversion of chitosan into oligosaccharides. Recent studies on chitosan depolymerization have drawn considerable attention, as the products obtained
are more water-soluble. Beneficial properties of chitosan and its oligosaccharides include: antitumour; neuroprotective; antifungal and antibacterial; and anti-inflammatory.In addition chito-oligosaccharides (COS) are very promising compounds for use as natural antioxidants in biological systems The antimicrobial activity of chitin, chitosan and their derivatives
against different groups of microorganisms, such as bacteria, yeast, and fungi, has received considerable attention in recent years. Two main mechanisms have been suggested as the cause of the inhibition of microbial cells by chitosan. One means is that the polycationic nature of chitosan interferes with bacterial metabolism by electrostatic stacking at the cell surface of bacteria. The other is blocking of transcription of RNA from DNA by adsorption of penetrated chitosan to DNA molecules. In this mechanism the molecular weight of chitosan must be less than
some critical value (w5000 Da) in order to be able to permeate into cell. The antimicrobial activities of chitosan are greatly dependent on its physical characteristics, most notably molecular weight (Mv) and degree of deacetylation (DD). Chitosan with a higher degree of deacetylation tends to have a higher antimicrobial activity. Some authors have reported that chitosan is more effective than chito-oligosaccharides (COS) in inhibiting growth of bacteria; for example, waterinsoluble chitosans exhibited higher antimicrobial effect against E.coli than COS. Other have reported that an increase in Mv leads to a decrease in the activity of chitosan; for instance COS had higher antimicrobial effect against E. coli than waterinsoluble chitosans. Furthermore, Jeon, Park,and Kim (2001) observed that chitosan with Mv of 224 and 1106 kDa possessed weak or no antibacterial activity against S.typhimurium, compared to chitosan with a Mv ¼ 28 kDa. In this study, the antimicrobial activities of chito-oligosaccharides against four Gram-positive and seven Gram-negative bacteria were compared to chitosan and chitin, prepared from shrimp shell waste (Parapenaeus longirostris), with an emphasis on the effects of
biopolymer molecular weight (Mv) and degree of deacetylation (DD). The long term aim of this work is to increase the application of chitosan and chito-oligosaccharides in the food, cosmetics,agriculture and health industry.