Antibacterial activity of chitosan

1. PENDAHULUAN

sumber-sumber komersial utama kitin dan kitosan adalah produk limbah

organisme laut seperti udang, lobster, kerang dan kepiting (Younes dan Rinaudo
2015).

Air terikat juga merupakan bagian dari struktur. Tingkat deasetilasi di kitin dapat
serendah <10% dan berat molekul polisakarida linear ini dapat setinggi 1-2,5x106Da
sesuai dengan tingkat polymeriza-tion dari ca. 5000-10,000. Chitosan merupakan produk
turunan dari N-deasetilasi dari kitin di hadapan alkali panas. Dalam kitosan, derajat
deasetilasi berkisar antara 40% sampai 98% dan rentang berat molekul antara 5x104 Da
dan 2x106 Da [7] (Gambar 1 dan 2).

Gambar. 1. Struktur kitin.

Gambar. 2. Struktur kitosan.

2. Sources, Structure and Production

Chitin similar to cellulose can be classified as structural polysaccharides.

Next to cellulose, chitin is the second most abundant polysaccharides found in
nature. Chitin occurs naturally as a support system in plants and animals, hard
skeleton of shellfish and marine invertebrate (Crab, Shrimp, Lobster, Prawn Krill,
Clams, Oysters and Squid) [6-9]. It is generally isolated from crustacean shells
and is considered as a cellulose derivative. The chemical structure of chitin is like
cellulose. The difference between chemical structure of cellulose and chitin is that
the 2-Hydroxy groups of cellulose have been replaced with N-Acetyl groups, and
results

3. Properties and Functions of Chitosans

Chitosan is the only cationic polysaccharide. Its cationic nature in acidic

medium is unique among polysaccharides. Chitosan is very sensitive to the
presence of anionic substances in its solutions [14,15]. The ability of chitosan to
bind with anionic compounds such as DNA is of great importance. The formation
of chitosan-DNA complexes renders chitosan as a good support in orthopaedic
gene therapy [16]. Chitosan and some of its derivatives exhibit film and fibre
forming properties [17]. Chitosan with various anti-microbial properties, make it a
good and qualified candidate in biomedical applications [14,18,19]. Chitin and
chitosan also exhibit mucoadhesion and immune-stimulatory activities [20].

Chitosan was shown immune-potentiation and wound-healing-promoting

properties [24]. Chitin is not soluble in most common organic and inorganic
solvents. Deacetylation of chitin, introduction of hydroxyl or carboxyl groups into
chitin results in an improvement in its solubility, which promotes processing, and
thereby widening its practical applications [12]. Chitosan as a biopolymer has
advantage over synthetic polymers due to its solubility in water [25,26].

2. Chitosan antibacterial activity

Conventional disinfection processes have recognized drawbacks displayed

by the byproducts generated from their use, whereas a simple virtue of chitosan
based products is that their backbone is biodegradable. This results in reduced
secondary pollution as well as alleviated costs of supplementary processing (Yang
et al., 2014). Chitosan is a degradable biopolymer that is derived from the
deacetylation of chitin present in the shells of crustaceans, the cuticles of insects,
and the cell walls of most fungal biomass (Hossain et al., 2014; Desbrières and
Guibal, 2017). It is composed of glucosamine and acetyl-glucosamine monomers
associated via (1 → 4) (Desbrières and Guibal, 2017). Chitosan is known for its
disinfection capabilities that override other disinfectants due to its effective and
broad spectrum of antimicrobial activities and low toxicity for animals and human
beings (Kang et al., 2008a, 2008b). In water treatment, the antimicrobial
properties of chitosan vary with the physical and chemical environment of the
treatment process. Its disinfection efficacy generally depends on the availability of
charged amino groups, molecular weight, chitosan dose, type of targeted bacteria,
pH, pka, ionic strength, surface area, disinfection time, chelating capacity, and
presence of organic matter (Kong et al., 2010). Several recent studies have been
reported on testing the efficacy of chitosan for bacterial disinfection. Table 1
summarizes the most recent published work on this topic and the associated
experimental setups. As can be noted from the conditions and results of these
studies, high removal efficiencies have been reported for chitosan based products
over a varying range of experimental conditions including temperature, pH,
retention time, type of water used in addition to the targeted microorganisms. The
applications also vary over a wide selection of water treatment processes.