Preparation and Potential Biological Activities of Chitooligosaccharides

Search for new biological compound such as chitooligosaccharides (natural products) have intensified in the recent years to provide the improvement of lifestyle. Chitosan was poorly soluble in neutral solution, which makes it difficult to use in food and biomedical applications. While chitooligosaccharides were fairly soluble in aqueous solution and consequently facilitated their utilization in industrial application. Chitooligosaccharides possessed various biological activities such as antitumor activity, antioxidant, antihypertensive, opioid, mineral binding, antimicrobial and wound healing. Preparation and separation of chitooligosaccharides are reviewed here. Potential biological activities (antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic) of chitooligosaccharides are also reviewed here based on our and others latest research results. Potential biological activities are correlated with their structures and physicochemical properties of the chitooligosaccharides. They can be used as natural food preservative and pharmaceutical industry. They have the advantage of not producing major side effect as is found in case of usual synthetic food preservative.