CHITOSAN & ITS DERIVATIVES: A REVIEW IN RECENT INNOVATIONS

Chitosan a natural polymer available and easy to produce in countless parts of the world; is a material that can significantly improve the standard of living in developing countries where the industry is often surpassing the need to protect the environment and/or where the environment protection is strongly dependent on limited financial resources available to those in charge of environmental protection. Its physicochemical properties such as its poor solubility in water or in organic solvents limit its utilization for a specific application. A smart way is to impart new properties to chitosan is its chemical modification of chain, generally by grafting of functional groups without disturbing the initial skeleton in order to keep the original properties intact. In this way the modified chitosan offers huge relevance in terms of its modified derivatives. The present review is dedicated to the advancements in the chitosan based derivatives and their special attention in food industry as the packaging material is also addressed.