| Year |
Discovered by |
Description |
|
1811 |
Henri Bracannot
(Director of the botanical garden in Nancy, France; Professor of Natural History) |
• Conducted research on mushrooms and extracted chitin.
• Discovery-chitin did not dissolve in sulfuric acid.
|
| 1823 |
Ojer |
• Coined the name ‘chitin’ which is derived from the Greek word ‘khiton,’ meaning ‘envelope.’
|
| 1832 |
Opperman |
• Chitin was extracted from insects–similar substances to chitin can also be found in insects
|
| 1843 |
Lassaigne |
• Demonstrated the presence of nitrogen in chitin
|
| 1859 |
C. Rougeut |
• Discovered chitosan
• Observed that substances containing chitin could be manipulated through chemical and temperature treatments that allow chitin to be solubilized.
• Treated chitin with concentrated potassium hydroxide at a high temperature.
|
| 1878 |
Ledderhose |
• Identified chitin synthesized from glucosamine and acetic acid
|
| 1894
1930 |
Hoppe-Seyler
German scientist & physiologist
Rammelburg |
• Proposed the name “chitosan.”
• Identified additional sources of chitin other than insects and fungi
• Found that chitosan can be extracted from marine arthropods, e.g., crab, shrimp, lobster
• Hydrolyzed chitin in several ways
• Discovered that chitin is a polysaccharide of glucosamine
|
| 1950 |
Darmon and Rudall |
• Discovered the structure of chitosan
• Advanced the study of chitin and chitosan through X-ray analysis
• Recorded the presence of chitin and cellulose in the cell wall through the use of X-ray analysis, which was the most advanced technology of the period.
• Recorded the absorption spectra of chitin, chitosan nitrate and wood cellulose in the region 3600 cm-1 to 750 cm-1 using polarized radiation
|
| 1951 |
• First book was published, 140 years after the initial observation by Bracannot, which was then confirmed by many researchers.
|
1960 –
till present |
• Many researchers have conducted studies using (modified & unmodified) chitosan-derivatives in the biomedical field
|
