Новое активное антимикробное пищевое покрытие на основе катионного производного хитозана

В работе показано, что триметиламинобензильное производное хитозана (ТМАБХ) обладает высокой антимикробной активностью и может быть включен в матрицу сукцинилхитозана (СХ-Na) простым смешиванием с получением компактных и однородных пленок. Смешивание данных полимеров улучшает прочность на разрыв и одновременно снижает проницаемость для кислорода и водяного пара образующихся пленок. Улучшение механических и барьерных характеристик наиболее выражено при массовом соотношении полимеров 1:1. Испытания пленок в качестве пищевых покрытий для бананов показали, что использование пленок вызывает уменьшение потери веса и потери витамина С бананов и приводит к значительному увеличению срока хранения бананов.

This author of the work demonstrates that a trimethylaminobenzyl derivative of chitosan TMABC, which has a high antimicrobial activity, can be incorporated into a succinylchitosan (CX-Na) matrix by simple mixing to obtain compact and homogeneous films. Mixing of these polymers improves tensile strength and simultaneously reduces the oxygen and water vapor permeability of the resulting films. These improvements in mechanical and barrier characteristics are most pronounced at a polymer weight ratio of 1:1. Tests of films as food coatings for bananas have shown that the use of films causes a reduction in weight loss and vitamin C loss, which results in a significant increase in their shelf life of bananas. Microbial spoilage (caused by bacteria and fungi) is one of the most important causes of loss of quality and limited shelf life of food. In this regard, the development of antimicrobial active food coatings is becoming one of the most urgent problems in food chemistry and related sciences (primarily physical and colloidal chemistry, as well as the chemistry of macromolecular compounds). Chitosan is a biocompatible biodegradable non-toxic polymer that is a product of deacetylation of the natural polymer of chitin (the second most common biopolymer after cellulose). Chitosan is promising for the creation of biodegradable food coatings due to its antibacterial and antifungal activity. However, the moderate antimicrobial activity of chitosan determines the low efficiency of coatings based on it. Chemical modification makes it possible to obtain derivatives of chitosan with the desired antimicrobial activity, which is higher than that of the original chitosan. Recently, author’s research group obtained trimethylaminobenzyl cationic derivatives of chitosan, which showed significantly higher antifungal and antibacterial activity in comparison with the original chitosan.