LAUSR

BACKGROUND Bio-based materials, as the plentiful and renewable resources for natural constituents which are essential for bio-medical and pharmaceutical applications, have not been exploited adequately yet. Chitosan is a naturally occurring polysaccharide obtained from chitin, which has recently attracted widespread attention owing to its excellent activity. This review shows the methods of extraction and modification of chitosan and provides recent progresses of synthesis and using of chitosan-based materials in biological applications. METHODS By consulting the research literature of the last decade, the recent progresses of functional chitosan-based materials for biological applications were summarized and divided into the methods of extraction chitosan, the chemical modification of chitosan, chitosan-based materials for biological applications were described and discussed. RESULTS Chemical modification of chitosan broadens its applications, leading to develop numerous forms of chitosan-based materials with excellent properties. The excellent bioactivity of chitosan-based material enable it serves potential application in biomedical fields. CONCLUSION Chitosan-based materials not only exhibit the excellent activities of chitosan, but also show other appealing performance of combined materials, even give the good synergistic properties of chitosan and its composite materials. Further studies are needed to define the ideal physicochemical properties of chitosan for each type of biomedical applications. The development of various functional chitosan-based materials for biological applications will be an important field of research, and this kind of material has important commercial value.