Chitin and chitosan, typical marine polysaccharides as well as abundant biomass resources, are attracting a great deal of attention because of their distinctive biological and physicochemical characteristics. To fully explore the high potential of these specialty biopolymers, basic and application researches are being made extensively. This review deals with the fundamental aspects of chitin and chitosan such as the preparation of chitin and chitosan, crystallography, extent of N-acetylation, and some properties. Recent progress of their chemistry is then discussed, focusing on elemental modification reactions including acylation, alkylation, Schiff base formation and reductive alkylation, carboxyalkylation, phthaloylation, silylation, tosylation, quaternary salt formation, and sulfation and thiolation.

No abstract

No abstract

A simple and convenient procedure for chemoselectively protecting the amino groups of chitosan has been developed to provide N-phthaloyl-chitosan that is indispensable as a soluble N-protected precursor for further controlled modification reactions of chitosan. Although the conventional N-phthaloylation of chitosan in N,N-dimethylformamide was accompanied by partial phthaloylation of the hydroxy groups, the addition of a small amount of hydroxy-containing compounds effectively suppressed the O-phthaloylation. Of some compounds examined, water proved particularly suitable, resulting in the formation of chemoselectively N-phthaloylated chitosan without any appreciable O-phthaloyl groups. The resulting N-phthaloyl-chitosan was found to be crystalline despite the presence of a bulky substituent. A solubility test indicated that N-phthaloyl-chitosan exhibited considerable affinity for organic solvents.