Chitin-chitosan activity

Chitin and chitosan have potential in agricultural applications because of their ability to increase crop yields. The presence of chitosan appears to enhance plant reproduction (42), and coating seeds with chitin/chitosan activates the secretion of plant chitinases into the environment providing extra protection from harmful pests. 

Kim, S. K. (2010). Chitin, Chitosan, Oligosaccharides and Their Derivatives Biological Activities and Applications. CRC Taylor Francis, USA (pp. 666). 

Secondly, the deacetylated form of chitin, chitosan, does not induce phytoalexin formation in the rice system but is active in other plant culture systems [99]. Glucan elicitors induce phytoalexins in legumes (soybean, chickpea, bean, alfalfa, pea) and solanaceous sp. (potato, sweet pepper) [100]. However, anthraquinone biosynthesis was stimulated in Morinda citrifolia by both chitin and chitosan. The degree of acetylation was found to be important in inducing defense responses. During the first few days of incubation after adding elicitor,... 

Natural products can be used as plant extracts with pharmacological activity (e.g., Mangifera indica L., vallerian, aloe, Cratoxylum pruniflorum, microporous zeolite), excipient for direct compression or granulation (chitin, chitosan, and dextran), and controlled-release systems (cellulose and native dextran). For natural products the most important factor is the standardization of the extract because properties such as the amount of active substance can be changed from batch to batch. Factors such as the origin of the extract, geographic zone, and age of the tree could affect the properties of natural extracts. 

It is well known that dietary fat is not absorbed from the intestine unless it has been subjected to the action of pancreatic lipase [1], Previously, we found that basic proteins such as protamines, histones and purothionine inhibited the hydrolysis of triolein emulsified with phosphatidylcholine [2], The inhibition of hydrolysis of dietary fat may cause a decrease or delay in the intestinal absorption of fat and reduce blood chylomicron levels, an excess of which is known to induce obesity [3], Therefore, there was a possibility that inhibitory substances toward pancreatic lipase activity may prevent the onset of obesity induced by feeding a high fat diet to mice. Recently, we found that natural products such as tea saponin, platycodi radix saponin, chitin-chitosan and chondroitin sulfate inhibited the pancreatic lipase activity. In the following section, the anti-obesity effects of these natural products will be described in detail. 

As shown in Fig. (11a), chitin-chitosan inhibited the pancreatic lipase activity dose-dependently between the concentrations of 6.25 p,g/ml and 200 ig/ml in the assay system, using triolein emulsified with lecithin. For characterization of the mechanism involved in the inhibition of pancreatic lipase by chitin-chitosan, the enzyme activity was assayed at various concentrations of lecithin-emulsified triolein and in the presence of increasing concentrations of chitin-chitosan. A Lineweaver-Burk plot of the data in Fig. (11 b) shows that chitin-chitosan was a competitive inhibitor. The Km and Vmax values of the lipase activity for lecithin-emulsified triolein were 6.06 ag/ml and 8.7 nmol/ml/min, respectively. The K value of chitin-chitosan on the lipase activity in lecithin-emulsified triolein was 17.6 M-g/ml. When triolein was emulsified with... 

Fig. (11) Effects of chitin-chitosan on pancreatic lipase activity, a Results are expressed as means s.e.m. of four experiments, b Lineweaver-Burk plots of the released oleic acid with lecithin-emulsified triolein as substrate in the presence of various concentrations of chitin-chitosan.

These results suggest that the inhibitory effects of chitin-chitosan on pancreatic lipase activity may be mediated by the interaction between substrate and enzyme through lecithin. Moreover, as shown in Table 4,... 

Minami S, Suzuki H, Okamoto Y (1998). Chitin and chitosan activate complement via the alternative pathway. Carbohyd. Polym. 36 151-155. 

Nwe N, Furuike T, Tamura H (2010) Chitin and chitosan from terrestrial organisms. In Kim SK (ed) Chitin, chitosan, ohgosaccharides and their derivatives biological activities and applications. CRC, Boca Raton, pp 3-10... 

Hydroxyl Polysaccharides (cellulose, agarose, dextran, chitin, chitosan), inorganic glass, polyvinyl alcohol, polyhydroxyethyl methacrylate Cyanogen bromide, triazine method, cyclic frans-2,3-carbonate reaction, carbonylation, periodate oxidation, epoxide activation [168-181]... 

Kumirska, J., Weinhold, M.X., Thoming, J. and Stepnowski, P. (2011) Biomedical activity of chitin/ chitosan based materials - influence of physicochemical properties apart from molecular weight and degree of N-acetylation. Polymers, 3, 1875-1901. 

Chitin, Chitosan, Demineralization, Deproteinization, Deacetylation, Degree of acetylation. Metal ions complexation. Polyelectrolyte complex. Biomaterial, Rocculation, Antimicrobial activity... 

C Antimicrobial Activity of Chitin, Chitosan, and Their Oligosaccharides... 

CHITIN, CHITOSAN, AND THEIR OLIGOSACCHARIDES VERSUS OTHER POLYMERS IN ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY... 

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