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In the past ten years, United Chitotechnologies’s team has amassed vast information on
manufacturing Chitin, and its derivatives, applications and marketing
United Chitotechnologies works closely with academic institutions and industries to develop applications for Chitosan and other Chitin
derived products. Our product advisory panel includes members from academic institutions, medical, nutritional fields and industry.
In the interest of technology advancement in this field, unless proprietary,
United Chitotechnologies team shares information on Chitosan and Chitin derived products with qualified parties from around the world.
Chitin, Chitosan, Glucosamine and Oligosaccharides chemistry
Chitin, the collective name of repeating units poly-B(1-4)-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine
is a natural polysaccharide that has D-glucosamine as its active ingredient. Chitin is widely distributed in nature and forms a major component of marine invertebrate shells, insects, yeast and fungi. Chitin is not
a single polymeric entity, instead it represents a wide family of closely related products derived from natural chitin-protein complexes.
Various species, sources and isolation processes form chitin that have varying lengths
of helical coil shape repeating units. Chitin is insoluble in ordinary solvents, but extraction of acetyl groups (deacetylation) from chitin using aggressive chemical treatment, or enzymatically yields chitosan,
which is soluble in organic acids.
Chitosan as a biocompatible polymer has a unique property that in acidic solutions it dissolves becoming cationic ( positively charged) and precipitates in alkaline media.
Commercially, Chitosans are characterized in terms of their ash, insoluble content, intrinsic viscosity, degree of deacetylation, molecular weight and filterability.
Field test indicate chitin derivatized to
short unit, Oligosaccharides enhance certain crop yields and exhibit antifungal properties. Clinical tests with small groups, and in-vitro tests have revealed chitin, and chitosan oligosaccharides beneficial effects
on the human auto-immune system.
Chitin treatment with hydrochloric acid yields Glucosamine hydrochloride salt. Glucosamine is a natural substance abundantly found in the human joints. The body synthesizes
glucosamine by combining glucose with amino acid glutamine. Glucosamine is found mostly in cartilage, and provides an important function in cartilage resilience and joint lubrication. As the body ages, it loses its
ability to convert sufficiently glucose and glutamine to Glucosamine. This progressive deficiency may lead to the deterioration of cartilage, wear-and-tear of bones that form joints, the onset of ostearthritis,
joint pain and inflammation.
Clinical group studies and patient claims support the fact that daily supplementation of glucosamine over a period of time can have beneficial effect with osteoarthritis
sufferers. In the United States, leading medical research institutions and Regulatory Agencies have recently undertaken an extensive clinical study to investigate and determine conclusively, the efficacy of
glucosamine for treating body joint pain associated with osteoarthritis.
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