Chitosan is a polysaccharide extracted from the shells of crustaceans, such as shrimp, crab, and cell walls of fungi. Chitosan is formed from chitin, a co-polymer of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and Dglucosamine, when over 80% of the acetyl groups of the N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues are removed. Chitosan and its derivatives have been shown to possess diverse biological activities, including antioxidant, anti-hypertensive, anti-coagulant, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, anti-allergic, antiinflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-cancer. Chitosan has been studied in recent years as a natural agrochemical biostimulant for applications in areas such as seed coating, preservation of fruits and vegetables, fungicides, growth biostimulants, elicitors, inducer of resistance to pathogens, etc. Chitosan as a biostimulant has biological properties and effective uses in the pharmaceutical industries, food industries, and agricultural products. This paper is a brief review on characterization, modification, and applications of chitosan.
Background: Nowadays, the optimization of the culture conditions in bioreactors is considered as an approach to produce secondary metabolites such as thebaine. Thebaine is the dominant alkaloid in Iranian poppy that is used as a precursor for the synthesis of analgesic compounds. Objective: Optimization of culture conditions of Papaver bracteatum adventitious roots in bioreactor for the scale-up thebaine production. Methods: In this study, adventitious roots was induced from the stem explants and then cultured in a bubble column bioreactor. The research was conducted as a factorial experiment based on randomized complete design. The bioreactor temperatures were 14, 20, 26 and 32 °C, as well as aeration volumes were 0.05, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 vvm. Results: The results showed that the temperature and aeration volume had significant effect on root fresh weight and thebaine content. The highest root dry weight was related to aeration volume of 0.2 vvm and temperature of 26°C. The maximum content of thebaine was observed in aeration volume of 0.2 vvm and temperature of 26°C. Conclusion: According to the results, aeration volume and temperature were two important factors for large-scale production of Papaver bracteatum biomass and thebaine in bioreactor conditions.
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