Utilization of Microbial Chitosan for Development of Nanocapsules

Chitosan has received much attention as a functional biopolymer for diverse applications, especially in pharmaceutics and medicine. Chitosan is a positively charged natural biodegradable and biocompatible polymer.In this study,3 different fungal strains Aspergillus niger NCIM1045, Aspergillus oryzae NCIM645 and Mucor indicus MTCC3318 were used for the production of chitosan. The produced chitosan was characterized by determining degree of deacetylation.Chitosan nanoparticles were prepared by ionic cross-linking with tripolyphosphate (TPP). The major effect on encapsulation and release of protein (e.g. enzyme diastase) in chitosan-TPP nanoparticles was investigated in order to control the loading and release efficiency. It was noted that the chitosan loading and releasing efficiency as a nanocapsule, obtained from different fungal sources was almost near to initial enzyme activity(12011 U/ml) with a negligible loss. Based upon these initial experiments, studies were also carried out on modification of chitosan based nanocapsules incorporated with physiologically important enzymes and nutraceuticals for target delivery.