ABSTRACT

The current status of polysaccharide-based materials for biomedical use can also be attributed to new possibilities for chemical modications that enhance their functional activities for specic purposes. These strategies involve combinations of polysaccharides with other polymers and applications of nanotechnology. Some of the major recent applications of polysaccharides in the biomedical eld include controlled drug delivery, tissue regeneration, wound dressing, dental implants, blood plasma expanders, vaccines, and nonviral gene delivery. Polysaccharide-based release systems that carry

19.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 263 19.2 Physicochemical parameters of chitin and chitosan ............................................................................................... 264 19.3 Structural and functional properties of chitin and chitosan ................................................................................. 266 19.4 Biomedical applications of chitin and chitosan and their derivatives .................................................................. 267

19.4.1 Antimicrobial activity of chitin and chitosan .............................................................................................. 267 19.4.2 Antioxidant activities of chitin and chitosan................................................................................................ 269 19.4.3 Anticancer activity of chitin and chitosan .................................................................................................... 270

19.5 Chitin and chitosan based biomaterials using biomedical aspects ...................................................................... 270 19.6 Marine chitin, chitosan and their biomedical importance ..................................................................................... 272 19.7 Summary ........................................................................................................................................................................ 273 References ................................................................................................................................................................................ 273

molecules of interest within their networks have been developed for the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors to transport drugs and other bioactive compounds to targeted sites. Therefore, the development of new technologies to nd novel bioactive compounds from by-products of marine processing will bring more value out of what is today considered a waste and represents unique challenges and opportunities for the seafood industry. Moreover, the marine invertebrate species are getting much attention due to the extraction of these polysaccharide groups of chitin and chitosan derived from chitin for safety reasons as well as due to the notion that “life originated from the marine.” However, exploration of chitin and chitosan from marine animals is still at the initial stages. In this chapter, we will present brief information on the biological properties of marine natural polymers such as chitin and chitosan connected with their physicochemical, structural, and functional properties and also several biomedical applications of both polymers, emphasizing the effect of the polymer characteristics for these applications.