Review of fungal chitosan: past, present and perspectives in Brazil

Abstract

Fungal chitosan is a polymer that has been discussed and studied since 1859 in the world with great advances occurring over the years. Due to its global importance, this review aims to expose the history of the production and application of fungal chitosan in Brazil. Data collection was done at the Scielo, Sciencedirect and Pubmed databases, considering the period of the last 50 years. The inclusion criteria were articles on pure or associated chitosan and, in particular, fungal chitosan produced or applied by Brazilian research groups. At the end of the review, it was noticed a fungal chitosan very studied in different continents, and in Brazil is still used in specific and small groups. With the present work, it is expected that the diffusion of the studies will be accelerated and that potential research groups for fungal chitosan may grow through interaction with the existing ones.

Current trends in fungal biosynthesis of chitin and chitosan

“…Similarly, spraying chitosan or chitin on the surface of cucumber plants before the inoculation with the pathogen B. cinerea, the activity of peroxidase and chitosanase increased causing inhibition of B. cinerea (Ben-Shalom et al 2003). Furthermore, a Brazilian patent by Stamford and co-worker (Stamford et al 2015) was published describing the successful application of fungal chitosan as a biofertilizer (Batista et al 2018).…”

“…The synthesis of chitosan in the cell wall of fungi was first described by Araki and Ito (1974) in Mucor rouxii (Zygomycetes). This process takes place due to the activity of chitin deacetylase enzyme (EC 3.5.1.41) which catalyzes bioconversion of chitin residues in the fungal cell wall (Batista et al 2018). This discovery was the start for other researchers to analyze the walls and confirm the presence of chitosan in many fungal species (Kendra et al 1989;Sudarshan et al 1992;Synowiecki and Al-Khateeb 1997).…”

“…Chitin deacetylation results in chitosan. Chitin deacetylation in the cell wall of fungi is catalyzed by the chitin deacetylase enzyme (EC 3.5.1.41) (Batista et al 2018). Biosynthetic pathway of chitin is graphically represented in Fig.…”

“…The quantity and/or quality of chitin and chitosan in the fungal cell wall may change due to environmental and nutritional conditions and the intrinsic characteristics of producing species (Campos-Takaki et al 1983;Ruiz-Herrera 2012). Many researchers aim to maximize the yield of fungal chitin and chitosan as well as minimize the production costs to be able to compete commercially with those obtained from crustacean's shell (Batista et al 2018). Based on the mechanism of their biosynthesis in fungal cells, several factors were proposed to affect chitin and chitosan production by submerged culture.…”

Biotriboelectric Nanogenerators: Materials, Structures, and Applications

“…Since Rouget first produced chitosan in 1859, chitosan has been widely concerned by various industries due to its excellent biocompatibility, safety, and degradability, and has made significant progress in many fields such as medicine, food, chemistry, biomedical engineering, and so on. [ 16 ] In recent years, chitosan is found to have strong positive triboelectricity due to the amino groups with excellent electron‐donating ability existing in each glucosamine unit of chitosan, which is suitable to develop bio‐TENGs ( Figure 2 a). [ 17 ] In addition, chitosan can be dissolved in acidic solution to achieve recycling and remodeling.…”