Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T21:52:40.393Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Characterization of chitin preparations using powder and film X-ray diffraction methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2013

Jeffrey R. Deschamps*
Affiliation:
Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering, Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Avenue, Washington, District of Columbia 20375
*
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: deschamps@nrl.navy.mil

Abstract

Chitin is a natural polysaccharide found in many diverse phyla and almost always occurs in association with protein. In this study the chitin polymer is characterized by X-ray diffraction from its naturally occurring unprocessed state through various steps used in the purification procedure. In addition, the effect of different treatments on the final product is examined. These studies show that native chitin has a characteristic diffraction pattern that is not altered by the mild treatments used to isolate relatively pure chitin. Chitins prepared from different sources exhibit the same characteristic diffraction pattern. In addition, chitin films prepared using non-degrading solvents retain most of the characteristic patterns. De-acylation of chitin to produce chitosan results in large changes to the diffraction pattern. To a very limited extent features present in the diffraction pattern of native chitin can be recovered by re-acylation of chitosan.

Type
Technical Articles
Copyright
Copyright © International Centre for Diffraction Data 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Attwood, M. M. and Zola, H. (1967). “The association between chitin and protein in some chitinous tissues,” Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 20, 993998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, P. R. (1977). “Solutions of chitin in dimethylacetamide, N-methylpyrrolidone or mixtures of these in combination with a minor proportion of lithium chloride,” U.S. Patent 4,059,457.Google Scholar
Austin, P. R., Brine, C. J., Castle, J. E., and Zikakis, J. P. (1981). “Chitin: new facets of research,” Science 212, 749753.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Austin, P. R. (1984). “Wound Healing Composition and Formulations,” U.S. Patent No. 4,427,654.Google Scholar
Balassa, L. L. and Prudden, J. F. (1978). “Applications of chitin and chitosan in wound-healing acceleration,” in Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Chitin and Chitosan at MIT, edited by Muzzarelli, R. A. A. and Pariser, E. R., (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA) pp. 296305.Google Scholar
Brimacombe, J. A. and Webber, J. M. (1964). Mucopolysaccharides (Elsevier, Amsterdam), p. 181.Google ScholarPubMed
Brine, C. J. (1979). “The Family of Chitins,” Doctoral Dissertation (University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware).Google Scholar
Brine, C. J. and Austin, P. R. (1975). “Renatured chitin fibrils, films, and filaments,” in Marine Chemistry in the Coastal Environment, Chapter 31, ACS Symposium Series, edited by Church, T. M. (American Chemical Society, Washington, DC), Vol. 18, pp. 505518.Google Scholar
Brine, C. J. and Austin, P. R. (1981a). “Chitin isolates: species variation in residual amino acids,” Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 70B, 173178.Google Scholar
Brine, C. J. and Austin, P. R. (1981b). “Chitin variability with species and method of preparation,” Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 70B, 283286.Google Scholar
Carlstrom, D. (1957). “The crystal structure of alph-chitin,” J. Biophys. Cytol. 3, 669683.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraenkel, G. and Rudall, K. M. (1947). “The structure of insect cuticles,” Proc. R. Soc. London B 134, 111143.Google ScholarPubMed
Hunt, S. and Nixon, M. (1981). “A comparative study of protein composition in the chitin-protein complexes of the beak, pen, sucker disc, radula and oesophageal cuticle of cephalopods,” Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 68B, 535546.Google Scholar
Linden, J. C., Stoner, R. J., Knutson, K. W., and Gardner-Hughes, C. A. (2000). “Organic disease control elicitors,” Agro Food Industry High-Tech 11, 3234.Google Scholar
Minke, R. and Blackwell, J. (1978). “The structure of α-chitin,” J. Mol. Biol. 120, 167181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muzzarelli, R. A. A. (1977). Chitin (Pergamon Press, Oxford), p. 309.Google Scholar
Rutherford, F. A. (1975). “Characterization of Marine Chitins Using a Unique Solvent,” Master Thesis (University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware).Google Scholar
Rutherford, F. A. and Austin, P. R. (1978). University of Delaware Sea Grant Report DEL-SG-13-78, Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware.Google Scholar
Sawayanagi, Y., Nambu, N., and Nagai, T. (1982). “Dissolution behavior of poorly soluble drugs from ground mixtures with chitin or chitosan,” in Chitin and Chitosan: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Chitin and Chitosan, edited by Hirano, S. and Tokura, S., (Japanese Society of Chitin and Chitosan, Tottori, Japan) pp. 216220.Google Scholar
Sikorski, P., Hori, R., and Wada, M. (2009). “Revisit of α-chitin crystal structure using high resolution X-ray diffraction data,” Biomacromolecules 10, 11001105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tajik, H., Moradi, M., Rohani, S. M. R., Erfani, A. M. and Jalali, F. S. S. (2008). “Preparation of chitosan from brine shrimp (Artemia urmiana) cyst shells and effects of different chemical processing sequences on the physicochemical and functional properties of the product,” Molecules 13, 12631274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed