A degree of deacetylation of 95.19% was achieved after irradiating
chitin at 60 mesh with 50% NaOH solution in a microwave for 10 min at 1400-W power. Microwave-synthesized
chitosan exhibited antioxidant activities of 47.71–72.31% at 10 mg/ml and
showed reducing powers of 2.094–2.367 at 10 mg/ml. On the other hand, at 10 mg/ml, the
scavenging ability of chitosan on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals ranged from 43.03% to
90.48%.