Chitosan in Pharmacy and Chemistry

Spontaneous evaluation

This book deals with all the potential and current applications of chitosan in several fields, first of all the pharmaceutical and medical one. In five sections it reports a collection of articles concerning chitosan and its wide range of applications. The first section begins with an interesting introduction about the discovery of chitin and a concise portrait of the discoverer.

Next we can find articles about chitosan as a drug delivery, for example chitosan salt for colon-specific drug delivery, chitosan microspheres of ibuprofen and chitosan, and trimethyl chitosan microparticles associated with diphtheria toxoid for mucosal vaccination. In this study, chitosan and trimethyl chitosan microparticles were investigated for their capacity to enhance the systemic immune response against diphtheria toxoid after nasal and oral administration.

The second section illustrates the medical and dietary aspects. In this section it is also reported the antimicrobial activity of chitosan that brings to a remarkable question: could chitosan be considered a novel food preservative ? Whilst consumers are demanding reductions in the levels of synthetic preservatives used in food products, there is a need to develop new preservation systems based on innocuous antimicrobial compounds found in nature, chitosan being one of them.

The third section is about the inorganic composites and polymer blends such as cellulose-chitosan, chitin-surfactants and others, and in this part there are also fascinating articles as one about the use of chitosan for paper improvements: chitosan is here contemplated as a material that meets well the requirements for paper impregnation. Another interesting article concerns chitosan possible application in textile finishing. Due to its chemical structure, chitosan has a very good adhesion and film-forming properties: it easily forms a film layer on both natural and synthetic fibres. The section four is about dyes and metal ion adsorption.

Chitosan is nowadays considered even as an useful textile auxiliary to modify the surface topography thus controlling the surface-related properties of the fibres. For example in the wool finishing, chitosan has been used as a shrink-resist agent and as an agent for improving the dyeability of wool.

The last chapter is about the chemical aspects like synthesis of chitosan derivatives, cross-linking reactions and physico-chemical properties. In this final section some interesting articles are reported, such as one about the synthesis and macromolecular characterization of chitin derivatives, another one about the production of chitosan derivatives under shear deformation and many others.

In conclusion we can assert that this volume, so rich of articles by scientists from all over the world, could be considered a precious device for scientists and technologists, who needs to have a complete view of this versatile raw material.

P. Del Ciotto
Journal of Applied Cosmetology, 20, 275 (2002)