Chitosan Article

About Liquid Chitosan

It’s been around for quite sometime now and has become very popular throughout the world and is a substance that has been derived from chitin, which is a polysaccharide that is found in the exoskeletons of crustaceans. Chitin is known to be one of the best polymers that is found in nature. It is in shellfish and also in fungi cells and cell walls of insects.

Chitosan is a type of chitin that is refined and it is manufactured from the shells of shellfish. These shells are made into a fine powder and are then deacetylated to allow it to soak up fat.

There are many applications that are related to chitosan. Due to these uses, chitosan is now sold as a thickening agent for foods, as dietary supplements, for makeup and paints and it is even being touted for use as artificial skin for victims who have suffered burns.

Chitosan is manufactured and available in two forms: liquid and a flakey and dry solid. Both forms of chitosan are sold as dietary supplements though it is this liquid chitosan that is more popular among dieters. That's because this liquid turns the fats in the stomach into many tiny beads so that there is no clumping and therefore no stomach pains.

Liquid chitosan tends to be identified by color, appearance, protein content, viscosity, degree of deacetylation, insolubility and certain other factors. Its color is yellow and clear and in liquid form, the protein content is under 0.5% and most often measures around 0.14% if it is measured using the Kjeldal method. If measured using the colloidal method then the amount of deacetylation equals more than 95%, if not, it is 90%. If liquid chitosan is prepared by constantly stirring for half an hour, a viscosity of 50cps can be obtained and this can be measured using a Brookfield viscometer.

It has less than a 0.5% insolubility when 20 grams of the liquid chitosan gets dissolved using 100 ml distilled water. It has less than 10ppm when it is measured using the ICP analysis and has a pH level that is under 5.5. This liquid chitosan is odorless and tasteless.

Liquid chitosan is very popular as a supplement used for weight loss. People who have already used the dry and flakey product have switched over to the liquid as it works better. It has been reported that people who used the flakey form developed stomach pains and gas, so to avoid the unfavorable side effects, the liquid form is preferred by most people today.

Liquid chitosan is a more recent development but it has outstripped the dry, flakey solid form as far as sales are concerned. Certain reports have shown that liquid chitosan does not form large clumps but instead turns the fat into hundreds of beads that are calorie free and very gentle on the digestive tract. However, liquid chitosan not only binds fats, it also binds vitamins that are fat soluble like vitamins A, E, D and K and make them unavailable to a person’s body. That is one main reason why most doctors ask you to take a supplement that contains a high quality multivitamin.