Studies on n-glycosides

Abstract

Chitosan, the deacetylation product of chitin, has been assumed to be a polymer of D-glucosamine, but little is yet known on its structure owing to the peculiarity of chemical behavior on deamination. It has been reported that chitosan forms free D-glucose instead of a polymer of D-glucose when treated with nitrite or nitrous acid. The examination of the conditions under which the experiments had been carried out led us to an attempt to deaminize chitosan without acid solution. Experiments were carried out with barium hypobromite as the deamination reagent, and it was proved that free D-glucose, not of polyhexosan, was formed as the deamination product. It may be concluded from this result that some parts, at least, of the interlinkage of D-glucosamine units in chitosan are possibly concerned with nitrogen atom. © 1951, Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry. All rights reserved.