Abstract: | The development of new materials has recently become an extremely interesting research topic, especially in relation to chitin and chitosan. Chitin, chitosan, and their derivatives hold great economic merit due to their versatile activities and biotechnological applications, such as their wide use in fabricating polymer scaffolds, the production of designed-nanocarriers, and in enabling microencapsulation techniques.
Among the natural chitin-containing resources, crab shells, shrimp shells, and squid pens have the highest chitin content. Conventionally, chitin is obtained from crab shells and shrimp shells using an inorganic acid or a strong alkali for demineralization or deproteinization, respectively. For recycling these fishery chitin-containing by-products, in order to produce additional highly bioactive products other than chitin or chitosan, the investigation of the utilization of shrimp shells, crab shells, and squid pens has been estimated via microbial conversion.
Last year, when Professor Masakazu Anpo visited Tamkang University, he accepted our suggestion to publish this special issue entitled “Research on Advanced Materials: Chitin and Chitosan.”
In this special issue, 12 papers offer evidence for the advancement of our knowledge and capabilities in this field. We would like to thank all of the authors who provided their contributions, presenting their incisive and unique perceptions regarding this special issue. We also express our sincere gratitude to all the reviewers for their effort and expertise in reviewing the manuscripts. |