Study on biological activity of chitosan after radiation processing

There are several natural polymers such as carrageenan, alginate, chitin or chitosan that are classified as polysaccharides. One of the most promising is chitosan, deacetylated derivative of chitin, produced from shellfish wastes or fungi [15]. Irradiation of this polymer led the reduction of molecular weight by scission of glycosidic linkage. As compared to the conventional techniques, like acid or base hydrolysis or enzymatic methods, radiation processing offers a clean one-step method for the formation of low molecular weight polysaccharides [5]. Chitosan is used in agriculture, medicine and health care, as food additives and also in environment protection [8]. Investigation on radiation effect on polysaccharides like chitosan proved the increase of its bioactivity. Low molecular weight chitosan have been reported to possess novel features such as promotion of germination and stimulation of growth or protection of plant from fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens [9, 16, 17]. Biostimulators are a category of products which, by definition, increase plant productivity especially under unfavourable conditions through Study on biological activity of chitosan after radiation processing Urszula Gryczka, Helena Gawrońska, Wojciech Migdał, Stanisław W. Gawroński, Andrzej G. Chmielewski