Efficient synthesis strategy of folate-modified carboxymethyl chitosan/CaCO3 hybrid nanospheres and their drug-carrying and sustained release properties

Prospects of microbial polysaccharides-based hybrid constructs for biomimicking applications

Polysaccharides are biobased polymers obtained from renewable sources. They exhibit various interesting features including biocompatibility, biodegradability, and nontoxicity. Microbial polysaccharides are produced by several microorganisms including yeast, fungi, algae, and bacteria. Microbial polysaccharides have gained high importance in biotechnology due to their novel physiochemical characteristics and composition. Among microbial polysaccharides, xanthan, alginate, gellan, and dextran are the most commonly reported polysaccharides for the development of biomimetic materials for biomedical applications including targeted drug delivery, wound healing, and tissue engineering. Several chemical and physical cross-linking reactions are performed to increase their technological and functional properties. Owning to the broad-scale applications of microbial polysaccharides, this review aims to summarize the characteristics with different ways of physical/chemical crosslinking for polysaccharide regulation. Recently, several biopolymers have gained high importance due to their biologically active properties. This will help in the formation of bioactive nutraceuticals and functional foods. This review provides a perspective on microbial polysaccharides, with special emphasis given to applications in promising biosectors and the subsequent advancement on the discovery and development of new polysaccharides for adding new products.

Calcium Carbonate-Carboxymethyl Chitosan Hybrid Materials

In the present work, precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) were prepared to obtain new hybrid materials used in papermaking. In the first step, occurred the precipitation of CaCO₃ in solution containing CMC at different levels (0.5%, 1%, and 1.5%). In the second step, PCC–CMC hybrid material (25%) was added to pulp suspension, and the sheets were made. The effect of PCC–CMC on paper properties (mechanical and optical) was systematically investigated. Breaking length, the brightness and opacity of the sheets obtained with the PCC–CMC material were better than the sheets fabricated with the unmodified PCC at similar levels of content.