In August 58 authors and groups of authors reported about new scientific findings in the field of chitosan research.

After dropping in the previous months, the publication number of chitosan articles slightly increased in July. Overall 76 articles were published in this field. In July 2010 83 articles were published, in comparison to this year it is only a small difference.

70 articles were published in June, an obvious decrease of publications. For comparison, 84 articles were published in May. In June 2010 with 129 articles almost twice as much articles appeared, compared to this June.

In May the publication rate of chitosan issues slightly dropped again. 84 articles were published which means six less than in April 2011, but two publications more than in May 2010.

In April the rate of publications with chitosan slightly dropped. 90 articles were published which means 7 less than in April 2010. In comparison to March 2011 38 fewer papers presented results in chitosan research.

127 papers about chitosan were published in March 2011. In terms of number of publications China and the USA again were the top countries with 35 and 15 publications about chitosan and its derivates followed by India with 9 publications. Most papers dealt with the topics pharmaceutical preparations (33 publications), evaluation studies (31 publications) and nano-particles (26 publications).  The table shows the journals which published most papers about chitosan and its derivates.

Five project partners from three different nations tackle the task to produce chitosan from animal chitin by means of enzymatic fermentation processes. The ERA-IB project is inter alia funded by the European Commission.

In the februar of this year 81 papers about chitosan and its derivates were published. As in the months before also in February china was with 21 publications the most active country in this field of research followed by the USA with 12 publications and India with 4.

Starting in a new year in January 2011 92 articles about chitosan and its derivates were published. The top themes in the last month were evaluation studies, studies in tissues and about nanoparticle with 26, 25 and 21 publications.

In December 2010 116 articles dealing with chitosan or chitosan derivates were published. With 31 publications about chitosan China is the country which publicized the most ones followed by USA with 10 publications and India with 9. There chitosan nanoparticles, evaluation studies and pharmaceutical preparations were of most interest (37, 34 and 33 publications).

Nitin Mohire and Yadav Adhikrao of the Government College of Pharmacy in Vidyanagar, India developed a herbal chitosan toothpaste and tested its efficiency. Read more about the results of their four-week clinical trial.

Besides interesting conferences like the ESB Meeting (European Conference on Biomaterials) from September 11 to 15 in Tampere, Finland many international articles about the application of chitosan appeared. As usual, some interesting papers will be presented.

Bruno Alonso and Emmanuel Belamie of the Charles Gerhardt Institute in Montpellier, France developed a new large-scale synthesis of bioorganic-inorganic nanocomposites: self-organising chitin-silicon dioxide nanocomposites with unpredecented specificity in texture and structure of the product.

The big challenge in the field of medical innovations is so tiny that it is not noticeable with the naked eye. Nanotechnology – a promising and trendsetting technology. For example, with the help of drug-delivery-systems drugs can be transported to an exactly defined part within the body.
Chitosan also produces nanoparticles.

Der Sommer neigt sich zum Ende – das heißt aber nicht, dass die News rund um Chitosan nicht heiß sind. Hier der Review der Chitosan Veröffentlichungen im August. 97 wissenschaftliche Artikel wurden veröffentlicht, in denen mit Chitosan gearbeitet wurde. Im Int J Biol Macromol wurden 8 Artikel veröffentlicht. Die Top drei Nationen bezogen auf die Anzahl der Artikel sind China, USA und Indien, gefolgt von Portugal auf Platz 4.

In July several outstanding articles about chitosan had been published around the world.  All in all 122 articles were released in 67 different journals. With regard to the number of publications the leading countries are China (31), the USA (20) and South Korea (10).

Youngnam Cho and Richard Borgens of the Purdue University in West Lafayette, USA found, what researchers were looking for since many years: a medium to medicate damaged nerve cells in the spinal cord. Chitosan is the new white hope in research and for concerned persons.

Organic farming products are very popular. Scientists discover why they are savory. The polymer chitosan may activate natural mechanisms that intensify the taste of plants or their fruit.

Biotechnology company is awarded with the “Best Early Stage Company” Award of the New Jersey Technology Councils (NJTC) and leaves other companies from life sciences, information technology, energy/environmental management, telecommunications and nanotechnology behind.

How can ecology and sustainability be combined with cleaning agents? What is the role of chitosan?

Sea Life visitors in Blankenberge, Belgium will be amazed about the new entrant. Besides penguin chicks and seals the Giant Japanese Spider Crab "Crabzilla" moved in on April 2.

This year again students run experiments with chitosan. Johannes W. at the secondary school “Gymnasium Oberalster” in Hamburg produced biodegradable films containing chitin or chitosan.

Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA designed a promising novel three-dimensional scaffold for stem cells. Main ingredients are chitosan and alginate.

Scientists at the Basque technological centre Neiker-Tecnalia tested chitosan as a healthy alternative to prohibited, growth-promoting antibiotics for ruminants.

Scientists of the University of Hamburg investigated the activity of chitosan against four microorganisms that can be found especially in seafood.

Even in the beginning of summer chitin and chitosan research is going on. 130 articles were published in journals. 50 submitted papers edited in China, 10 in the US and 9 in South Corea. You want to learn more about the foci of interest? Just keep on reading.

Besides the event in the first half of the year 2009 - the European Conference on Chitin and Chitosan in Venice - many different articles in chitin and chitosan research were published in scientific journals. Here your can find an overview of some them...

Whats new in April? Many different articles about chitin and chitosan were published in scientific journals.

The younth in Germany is also researching about chitosan. Two scoolgirls land not only a first prize, but also a special prize on regional as well as on state level  of the competition "Jugend forscht". Title of their work: Biopolymer, Lipidabsorber, Ion exchanger, anti microbial agent: The allrounder Chitosan.

Chitosan is employed in many domains. Besides medical areas like e.g. as support in wound healing or in tissue engineering chitosan can also be applied in the fields of food technology and water management. Thanks to scientists of the faculty of Microsystems Technic at the Univesity of Stuttgart, chitosan might soon become part of biocompatible fuel cells.

Scientist at the Mississippi South University in Hattiesburg succeded a spectacular development - a self-reparing material when exposed to ultraviolet light. Prof. Marek Urban and Ph.D. student Biswajit Ghosh were researching on a coating, which main components are chitosan and oxetan. From their point of view this priniciple can be of greatest importance for many matrials.

In the first two months of the year articles were published predominantly in these journals: biomaterials [6], biomed mater res a [2], j mater sci-mater m [2], langmuir [2], biomacromolecultes [2] Authors are from Asia, Europe and Northamerica. The treated topics are presented in this article. The data was obtained through GoPubMed.

In the first two months of this year numerous articles about chitosannanoparticles has been published into the following journals: biomaterials [6],  biomed mater res a [2], j mater sci-mater m [2], langmuir [2], biomacromolecules [2]. The Authors are from Asia, Europe and Northamerica.

150 Years ago C. Rouget discovered the biopolymer chitosan when cooking chitin in a base. Ever since, the interest in this polymer is increasing constantly. On the one hand new application fields are developed over and over again. On the other hand the primary material chitin is a renewable resource, which is generated as by-product in huge annual quantities in food-industry.

American start-up for chitosan wound care solutions PhD students in Maryland (University of Maryland and Robert H. Smith School of Business) found their own start-up to develop blood-clotting products. Already two products are in a development phase. A surgical spray and a sponge, both based on chitosan.

Dr. Thomas Freier

Tissue engineering is a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field of research focused on the development of vital autologous tissue through the use of a combination of biomaterials, cells, and bioactive molecules, for the purposes of repairing damaged or diseased tissue and organs. The future tissue engineering market potential has been estimated at 70 billion Euro. Due to its biocompatibility and biodegradability, together with its specific interactions with components of the extracellular matrix and growth factors, chitosan has emerged as exceptionally promising material for various tissue engineering applications, including skin, nerve, bone, and cartilage repair applications.

Have a look at published papers in march 2009.

Christian Augsten, Karsten Mäder

Flow Field-Flow Fractionation (Flow-FFF) is a powerful tool to separate molecules and particles in a range from 103 to 107Da and particles of nanometric size up to a few micrometers [1]. By coupling FFF to Multi-angle light scattering (MALS) it is possible to determine absolute molar masses (M) of molecules and to verify their aggregation. For macromolecules of an appropriate size the radius of gyration (rg) can be achieved [2]. The aim of our study was to investigate various chitosan types by applying Flow-FFF and MALS to their aqueous solutions.

Christian Augsten, Karsten Mäder

Flow Field-Flow Fractionation (Flow-FFF) is a powerful tool to separate molecules and particles in a range from 103 to 107Da and particles of nanometric size up to a few micrometers [1]. By coupling FFF to Multi-angle light scattering (MALS) it is possible to determine absolute molar masses (M) of molecules and to verify their aggregation. For macromolecules of an appropriate size the radius of gyration (rg) can be achieved [2]. The aim of our study was to investigate various chitosan types by applying Flow-FFF and MALS to their aqueous solutions.