Recently, much attention has been paid to
chitosan as a potential polysaccharide resource
[5]. Although several efforts have been reported
to prepare functional derivatives of chitosan by
chemical modifications [6–8], very few attained
solubility in general organic solvents [9,10] and
some binary solvent systems [11–13]. Chemically
modified chitin and chitosan structures
resulting in improved solubility in general organic
solvents have been reported by many
workers [14–23]. The present review is an
attempt to discuss the current applications and
future prospects of chitin and chitosan.