General description

Chitosan offers remarkable biological properties; it has been widely used in drug delivery and tissue engineering applications. Chitosan has good mucoadhesive properties due to its positive charge, which increases the adhesion to mucosa and facilitates drug penetration. Also, chitosan possesses hemostatic properties, which makes it a good candidate for wound dressing applications.

The quaternization of the primary amine increases the water solubility of chitosan and keeps chitosan soluble over a wide pH range. Cationically modified chitosan such as N-(2-Hydroxy)propyl-3-trimethyl ammonium chitosan chloride (HTCC) also imparts excellent antibacterial activity and immuno-enhancing characteristics. HTCC also used in gene delivery applications