Abstract

From long time, scientists are looking for natural biomolecules in order to discover new pharmaceutical agents. Therefore polysaccharides which are natural molecules from several biotopes (microbial, plant, algae, fungi, animals, and insects) constitute a very large potential of application for medical treatment. Among them, chitosan a deacetylated form of chitin (one of the most abundant polysaccharide in the world) and its derivatives are probably the pharmaceutical polysaccharides of now and the future due to intrinsic biological and chemical properties. In this present editorial opinion we describe the mainly commonly chemical and enzymatic processes investigated to generate chitosan and derivatives with pharmaceutical efficiency such as antitumoral agent, antimicrobial agent, antioxidant agent and tissular engineering agent.

Keywords: Bioactivity; Chemical derivatives; Chitosan; Pharmaceutical; Polysaccharide