ABSTRACT
Chitosan is a polyaminosaccharide, a partially deacetylated derivative of chitin. It is widely used in food, biomedical, and chemical industries, as fat blockers, a stabilizer, a preservative for fruits and vegetables, dairy products. From the chemical point of view, the structure of chitosan is a copolymer of glucosamine and N-acetylglucosamine linked by β-1,4glycosidic bonds. Despite the high biofunctional properties of chitosan, its use is limited because of the high molecular weight and viscosity and, as a result, low absorption in vivo. Products of chitosan depolymerization, low molecular weight derivatives as well as chitooligomers exhibit physiological activity greater than chitosan, and therefore have a great potential of application. Low molecular weight chitosans (LMWC) with molecular weight between 5 and 10 kDa shows a strong antibacterial, fungicidal, hypolipidemic, and hypocholesterolemic effect [1-3].
