Free radical scavenger activity of chitosan and its aminated derivative

Abstract

Antioxidants may have a positive effect on human health since they can protect the human body against deterioration by reactive oxygen species (ROS). Chitosan has many promising properties as nontoxic, biocompatible, biodegradable, antimicrobial and recently antioxidant properties. Most of the reports on the antioxidant activity of chitosan are based on the ability of amine and hydroxyl group to scavenge free radical to form stable macromolecular radical. In the current study, a new chitosan derivative with extra free amine groups was evaluated using two popular antioxidant evaluation methods (uninhibited/inhibited hyaluronan degradation and decolorization of ABTS method). The result obtained in our study show increase the activity of aminated chitosan for scavenging free radicals than chitosan itself.