Antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities of N-modified chitosans

摘要

Recently, the search for effective natural antioxidants use in food and medicinal fields to replace synthetic ones has attracted the most attention. Chitosan, a natural nontoxic biopolymer, is known to possess antioxidant property, which is attributed that NH_2 and OH attached in the pyranose ring react with unstable free radicals to form stable macromolecule radicals. It has been observed that the antioxidant activity of chitosan is closely related to the form of nitrogen atom in the molecules. This review focuses on the antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities of various nitrogen atom of chitosan, including N-acylated chitosans, Schiff bases of chitosan, N-alkyl chitosan, and N-quaternized chitosan. The free radical scavenging mechanisms are summarized and the effects on free radical scavenging activity of N-modified chitosan are discussed. This work may provide more insights into the antioxidant ability of N-modified chitosans and potentially enable them to be used as natural antioxidants for application in food, agriculture, cosmetic and biomedical science.