Chitosan and its antimicrobial potential – a critical literature survey

By Dina Raafat, H. Sahl. Microbial Biotechnology, 2009

856 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Chitosan, an aminopolysaccharide biopolymer, has a unique chemical structure as a linear polycation with a high charge density, reactive hydroxyl and amino groups as well as extensive hydrogen bonding. It displays excellent biocompatibility, physical stability and processability. The term ‘chitosan’ describes a heterogenous group of polymers combining a group of physicochemical and biological characteristics, which allow for a wide scope of applications that are both fascinating and as yet uncharted. The increased awareness of the potentials and industrial value of this biopolymer lead to its utilization in many applications of technical interest, and increasingly in the biomedical arena. Although not primarily used as an antimicrobial agent, its utility as an ingredient in both food and pharmaceutical formulations lately gained more interest, when a scientific understanding of at least some of the pharmacological activities of this versatile carbohydrate began to evolve. However, understanding the various factors that affect its antimicrobial activity has become a key issue for a better usage and a more efficient optimization of chitosan formulations. Moreover, the use of chitosan in antimicrobial systems should be based on sufficient knowledge of the complex mechanisms of its antimicrobial mode of action, which in turn would help to arrive at an appreciation of its entire antimicrobial potential.

Subfields: Biomaterials, Molecular Biology, Pharmaceutical Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/dc25efc03768007d613419cce0fad7dd9ad43cff

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In Biomaterials

1. S. Sinha Ray
2. C. P. Jiménez‐Gómez
3. J. A. Cecilia
4. M. Civera
5. N. Acosta
6. C. Arias
7. A. Alcántara
8. I. Aranaz

In Molecular Biology

1. C. P. Jiménez‐Gómez
2. J. A. Cecilia

In Pharmaceutical Science

1. C. P. Jiménez‐Gómez
2. J. A. Cecilia

Citations in the corpus

• Preparation and antibacterial activity of chitosan-based nanocomposites containing bentonite-supported silver and zinc oxide nanoparticles for water disinfection (2015, background): “…for transition-metal ions and organic species because the amino (\\NH2) and hydroxyl (\\OH) groups on Cts chains can serve as coordination and reaction sites (Zheng and Zhu, 2003; Chang and Juang, 2004; Li et al., 2008; Raafat and Sahl, 2009; Kittinaovarat et al., 2010; Guibal et al., 2013).”
• Chitosan: An Overview of Its Properties and Applications (2021, background): “Chitosan, chitosan derivatives and chitooligosaccharides exert antimicrobial activity against different microorganisms, in ‐ cluding bacteria, filamentous fungi, and yeast [48]; some examples of the different micro ‐ organisms sensible to chitosan are shown in Table 3.”
• Modification of Chitosan for the Generation of Functional Derivatives (2019, background): “Microbial inhibition by CS may be the result of a sequence of molecular mechanisms which altogether lead to cell inhibition and death [79,86,90,108,109].”
• Antimicrobial properties of chitosan and mode of action: a state of the art review. (2010, background): “Alternation of the ionic strength in a medium may disturb the inhibitory activity of chitosan (Chung et al., 2003; Raafat and Sahl, 2009), probably caused through two mechanisms.”
• Antimicrobial Actions and Applications of Chitosan (2021, background): “However, the effectiveness of the antimicrobial activity of chitosan is highly dependent on the type of target microorganism [29,36,84,88,90,103,107].”
• Chitosan: A Natural Biopolymer with a Wide and Varied Range of Applications (2020, background): “Chitosan and its derivatives exhibit differential activity towards Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria, as is evident in most studies (Figure 11) [26,121].”