Chitin is a biopolymer that can produce exoskeletons of insects and shellfish.


Let's take a closer look at this biopolymer.


Chitin in Shells and Edible Insects

Chitin was discovered in 1811 by Henri Braconnot, a French chemist and pharmacist. After cellulose, it is the most important biopolymer in nature.


In fact, it forms the exoskeletons of insects, shellfish, and many fungi, such as cellulose, which exhibit the same chain structure, called polymers. Polymers are long molecules, such as pearl necklaces, that are made of other molecules or molecular sequences, more or less.


Chitin is a polysaccharide, a long chain sugar, in which the pearl is a molecule of N-acetylglucosamine. N-glucosamine is a very important substance in human organisms. In fact, it is the precursor of hyaluronic acid, which is used to treat the functional recovery of joints. On the other hand, hyaluronic acid is also used in cosmetics industry.


Its remarkable strength and the fact that it can be degraded by enzymes in human tissues make it an excellent material for sutures and as a component of medical preparations to accelerate wound healing.