These properties make it suitable for numerous applications in different fields, for instance, medicine (pharmacology, cosmetics), biotechnology, agriculture, the food industry (nutritional enhancement and food processing), the environment (waste and water treatment) and the textile industry. Generally, molecular weight of COS can be considered up to 10 kDa or less, and during preparation of different molecular weight chitosans, viscosity is used as a parameter to determine the molecular weight.
STRUCTURAL UNITS OF CHITOSAN AND ITS PARENT SUBSTANCE CHITIN Chitin consists mostly of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine-units (left). During the preparations of Chitosan, most units are deacetylated to D-glucosamine –units (right)
