Various Methods for Determination of the Degree of N-Acetylation of Chitin and Chitosan: A Review

Chitin, chitosan, and their derivatives have been identified as versatile biopolymers for a broad range of agriculture and food applications. Up to now, several methods have been developed to determine degree of N-acetylation, DA, for chitin and chitosan. In this article, an effort has been made to review the available literature information on the DA determination. These methods are classified into three categories: (1) spectroscopy (IR, H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, N-15 NMR, and UV); (2) conventional (various types of titration, conductometry, potentiometry, ninhydrin assay, adsorption of free amino groups of chitosan by pictric acid); (3) destructive (elemental analysis, acid or enzymatic hydrolysis of chitin/chitosan and followed by the DA measurement by colorimetry or high performance liquid chromatography, pyrolysis-gas chromatography, and thermal analysis using differential scanning calorimetry) methods. These methods have been compared for their performances and limitations as well as their advantages and disadvantages. The use of IR and NMR spectroscopy methods provides a number of advantages. They do not need long-term procedures to prepare samples, and they provide information on the chemical structure. H-1 NMR and UV techniques are more sensitive than IR, C-13 NMR, and N-15 NMR spectroscopy. The IR technique is mostly used for a qualitative evaluation and comparison studies. Conventional methods are not applicable for highly acetylated chitin. The results of the latter methods are affected by ionic strength of the solvent, pH, and temperature of solution. In destructive methods, longer times are needed for the measurements compared to spectroscopy and conventional methods, but they are applicable for the entire range of the DA.