Chitin - what is it? Chitin application

If you think that locusts are consumed only in the Middle East and in some African countries, you are greatly mistaken. Dishes from insects, in fact, we regularly consume. It is believed that they are very useful. For several decades, chitin is part of food, cosmetics, medicines.

Even in surgical threads and bandages for many years, add this substance or use in their manufacture of its derivatives. The Japanese began to do this first. Exotic fashion behind them was taken up by Americans and Europeans. Now the Russians have also joined this substance.

Chitin: what is this?

What is the substance in question? Let's figure it out. Those of us who do not skip school biology classes, of course, are familiar with such a substance as chitin. What is it, many know. Of this substance are shells of crayfish. However, not only these animals have it. Chitin is a part of the outer skeleton of all kinds of arthropods: insects (butterflies, beetles) and crustaceans (lobsters, shrimps, crabs).

This substance, in addition, is also contained in the cell wall of fungi and yeast. And algae - not deprived by them plants. Chitin is located in their cell wall.

Chitin structures, structure of matter

Information on the properties and structure of cellulose (the most important representative of polysaccharides, which is the main structural component of plants) is now presented in the literature in an accessible form. However, there is much less information about the structure of chitin. Nevertheless, it is the basis of the skeletal system that supports the structure of cells that form tissues in the cuticle of insects, shells of crustaceans, the cell wall of bacteria and fungi. The fact that chitinous structures in the organisms of insects and crustaceans is inherent in hardness is associated with the formation of a special chitin-carbonate complex. It appears as a result of the deposition of the substance of interest to us on calcium carbonate, which acts as a sort of inorganic matrix.

There is some analogy between the structure of cellulose and chitin. However, unlike the first, for chitin the substituent of the 2-nd carbon atom of the elementary link is the acetamide group. In cellulose, the same role belongs to hydroxyl. Macromolecules of native chitin (i.e., natural) usually contain a certain number of units with primary free amino groups.

Useful properties of chitin

This substance is added in order to enhance the flavor and taste of food, improve the appearance, or use as a preservative. There are also nutritional supplements in which it is contained. The composition of chitin is such that this substance has medicinal properties. The benefit of it is believed to be the following:

• Suppress the development of cancer cells;
• Protects our body from the effects of radioactive radiation;
• Increases immunity;
• Prevents the development of strokes and heart attacks, as it enhances the effect of drugs that dilute blood;
• Fights with various inflammatory processes;
• Improves digestion (reduces the acidity of gastric juice, and also promotes the growth of beneficial bifidobacteria);
• Maintains a low level of cholesterol in our blood, which helps with obesity and atherosclerosis;
• Accelerates the processes of tissue repair.

A very useful substance is chitin. What it is and what its medicinal properties are, it would be good to remember.

How common is chitin in nature

It occurs in nature very often. So much that it ranks second in terms of prevalence among organic substances (the first belongs to cellulose). A number of scientists even believe that in the near future humanity will switch to a purely chitinous diet. For example, Sam Hudson, a professor of polymer chemistry, recently reported that researchers are currently on the verge of discovering a "new world" where the number of products that can be obtained from chitin will be endless.

A bit of history

Let's talk about how it all started with a substance like chitin. What is it, learned in the 19 century. As early as 1811, Professor Henry Bracconnault, the director of the Botanical Garden in Nancy (France), began to investigate the chemical composition of the fungi. The attention of this scientist was attracted by an unusual substance. Sulfuric acid was not able to dissolve it. It was chitin. After a while it turned out that the biopolymer, isolated by a scientist from France, is present not only in mushrooms. He was also found in the elytra of insects.

Chitin, whose properties were still poorly known, in 1823 received the official name. In Greek, "chitin" means "clothing." Scientists, having got rid of proteins and calcium in 1859, received a new substance from it. It was called chitosan. This substance is even more curious than its predecessor. It activates cellular activity, establishes hormonal secretion and nervous self-regulation, contributing to the functioning of the body and healthy vital activity, as recent studies have shown. And these are just some of its useful properties. However, no one was interested in chitin after all the initial discoveries for a hundred years, except for narrow specialists.

Only at the end of the 20th century it was possible to find out how useful these substances are to health. However, people have long since begun to eat arthropods and, accordingly, chitin in animals.

About how the ancients ate insects

Even in the book of Leviticus, the Bible mentions the mention of "unclean" and "pure" insects, that is, fit and unfit for food. To "clean", for example, include grasshoppers and locusts. John the Baptist, being in the desert, ate wild honey and locusts. Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, mentioned that Africans catch these insects. Then they dry locusts in the sun, water it with milk and eat it. It is believed that the locusts in honey did not disdain even the ancient Romans. And the wives of Mohammed, the founder of Islam, sent whole trays with these insects as a gift to their spouse.

At the court of Montezuma, the Indian ruler, cooked ants were served during the dinner parties. Alfred Brehm, a famous traveler and zoologist, wrote in his book entitled "Animal Life" that Sudanese people catch termites and eat them with pleasure.

Modern delicacies from arthropods

Gastronomic love of insects among many peoples has survived today. In the Middle East, as well as in some African countries, locusts are sold in bazaars and shops, and the menu of expensive restaurants invariably includes dishes from it. In the Philippines, there are many options for preparing crickets. In Mexico, eat grasshoppers and stink-bugs. In Thailand, and larvae of beetles, and dragonflies, and caterpillars, and crickets.

Chitin diet

It is interesting that even at the end of the 19th century a diet of insects was invented. Vincent Holt, an English naturalist and traveler, began to invoke, in opposition to meat-eating and vegetarianism, entomophagy (this is what insects call food). Holt, not realizing that chitin and chitosan have a healthy effect on the body, wrote that as a source of nutrients insects are much cleaner and more useful than other animals. After all, they themselves eat only vegetable food.

Nutritional value of insects

Is it possible to be saturated with insects? It is not easy to do this, but it is possible, especially if one remembers the miraculous properties of chitin. The application of the diet will be effective if even approximately to calculate how much it is necessary to catch grasshoppers, dung beetles, bees and termites, so that in total their weight is 100 grams. Nutritional value of 100 grams of different insects is next.

• Grasshoppers will give you 20.6 proteins and 6.1 grams of fat.
• Dung beetles - 17.2 g of proteins and 3.8 g of fats.
• Termites - 14.2 g of proteins and 2.2 g of fat.
• Bees contain 13.4 g of proteins and 1.4 g of fats.

For comparison: in beef - 23.5 g of proteins and 21.2 g of fats.

However, entomophagy remains, after all, exotic. Nowadays, in order to be convinced of the healing properties of chitin or chitosan, it is not necessary to eat scarabs and cockroaches, overcoming disgust. To do this, simply go to the store and choose something dietary.

Studies conducted in our country

The drug based on chitin was first created in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. This drug was supposed to help protect against ionizing radiation. The development of a new medicine was classified by the military. At the same time, the composition of this remedy was hidden even from physicians. After a series of experiments on monkeys, dogs and mice, it was proved that this drug helps them survive even after they received a lethal dose of radiation. A little later, scientists discovered that the benefits of chitinic medicines exist for humans. Their properties, in addition, are not limited to the radioprotective effect alone.

It was possible to find out that chitin, as well as its derivatives, are able to combat allergies, cancerous tumors, intestinal diseases, hypertension, etc. Chitin inclusions, in addition, increase the duration of action of other drugs.

Modern research

And nowadays studies of chitosan and chitin are continuing. In Russia, they are engaged in scientists who are members of the Russian Chitin Society, established in 2000. It includes not only those researchers who study directly these substances, but also representatives of other fields of science, as well as agriculture, medicine and industry. The best scammers in the West are given a special Brakons Prize. It got its name in honor of Brakonno, who was the discoverer of chitin. In our country, such a prize is named after Pavel Shorygin. This academician is an enthusiastic researcher of chitin.