ABSTRACT
Chitin is the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature after cellulose. It is widely distributed in the animal and vegetal kingdom, constituting an important renewable resource. It was …rst isolated from fungi by Braconnot in 1811,1 but the name chitin, from the Greek language, which means tunic or cover, was given by Odier, who in 1923 isolated it from the elytrum of the cock-chafer beetle by treatment with hot alkaline solutions.2 Because of its insolubility in the vast majority of common solvents, chitin was considered an intractable polymer and for many years it remained mainly a laboratory curiosity. However, at present, chitin and its derivatives have become polymers of great interest in a large variety of areas of human activity. Chitin is generally represented as a linear polysaccharide composed of β (1 → 4) linked units of N-acetyl-2-amino-2-deoxy-dglucose. A great structural similarity exists between chitin and cellulose; the difference between
9.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 243 9.2Amphiphilic Polymeric Systems..........................................................................................245 9.3Amphiphilic Systems Based on Chitin and Chitosan Derivatives.......................................246
