Description

About 70% of the Earth's surface is covered with seawater and 90% biosphere wraps maximum biodiversity that offers resourceful novel bio‐molecules. Marine species are enriched with organic compounds viz. terpenoids, polyethers/ketides, lipo‐glycoproteins, peptides and polysaccharides that act as cell surface receptors and involve in cell development/differentiation, besides being antimicrobial agents. Algae, sponge and fish have various defense mechanisms developed via specific/potent natural molecules to survive under hostile, extreme conditions such as various degrees of salinity, pressure, temperature, darkness, besides microbial and viral attacks. Marine seaweeds and algae enriched with polysaccharides such as glycosaminoglycans, agar, alginate and chitin/chitosan owing to their diversified significance have received growing attention among researchers. Currently, marine‐derived biomolecules cater 20% market drug load while other natural products bear 30% share. Chitins exhibit various biological and physicochemical properties that can be exploited in biotechnology and medicine/drug, cosmetic, food and textile industries. This chapter focuses on chitin/chitosan production, its physicochemical characterization and biological activities and relationship between its chemical structure and bio‐activity, including chemical modification reactions such as acylation, substitution, sulfonation and other cross‐linking strategies applied to skeletal modification with the recently u

Chapter