AUCTORES
Globalize your Research
Review | DOI: https://doi.org/10.31579/2578-8949/083
1 Academy of History of Healthcare Art, 00186 Rome, Italy and China MedicalUniversity, 110001 Shenyang, China.
2 ISCD Nanoscience Center 00165 Rome, Italy.
3 Institute of Macromolecular Compounds, Russuan Academy of Sciences, 199004 Saint Petersburg, Russia.
4 Department of Dermatology, The First Hospital of China Medical University, Key Lab of Immuno dermatology, National Health Commission Ministry of Education 110001 Shenyang China.
*Corresponding Author: Pierfrancesco Morganti, Academy of History of Healthcare Art, 00186 Rome, Italy and China Medical University, 110001 Shenyang, China.
Citation: P Morganti, G Morganti, V E Yudin and H-D Chen. (2021) CHITIN AND LIGNIN: OLD POLYMERS AND NEW BIO-TISSUE- CARRIERS. Dermatology and Dermatitis. 6(3); Doi:10.31579/2578-8949/083
Copyright: ©2021 Pierfrancesco Morganti, This is an open-acscess article distributed under the terms of The Creative Commons. Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Received: 16 August 2021 | Accepted: 28 August 2021 | Published: 06 October 2021
Keywords: chitin nanofibrils; lignin, polyhydroxyalkanoate; polylactic acid nanoparticles; beauty market; surgical maskl; waste; pollution; environment; covid-19
Worldwide consumers are nowadays much more focusing on their wealth and appearance, having increased their worry caused from the pollution, plastic wastes and the earth' disasters further increased for the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend has created an heightened demand for products which, formulated with natural and functional ingredients and carried by sustainable delivery systems, should be produced and packed with biodegradable compounds. The paper suggests to formulate innovative cosmetic and medical products based on the use of carriers made by biodegradable polysaccharide-tissues embedded by micro-nano particles of chitin nano fibril-nano lignin complexes, encapsulating different active ingredients. Thus, data on chitin, lignin and their complexes are reported and discussed, focusing the attention on their possible use to make innovative products, characterized for their effectiveness, safeness, and biodegradability.
The worldwide provisional increase of population to 9.15 billion with a contemporary increase of aging people projected to range 1.5 billion by 2050 [1], has created a major and different need for food, cosmetics, drugs and medical devices with a consequent production of a great quantity of plastic waste. Thus, the worldwide Beauty & Personal care market value was of USD 483 billion in 2020 with a prediction to exceed USD 784.6 billion by 2027 with an annual grow rate(CAGR) of 4.75% in the 2020-2027 forecast period (Figure 1) [2, 3],while the health and wellness food market is projected to grow to USD 235.94 million.
This growth, further increased from the COVID-19 pandemic, is due to the women and men 'research of an healthy and juvenile aspect, also because "looking old" or "ugly" is considered to have negative effects on self-esteem and social Interactions [4]. Unfortunately, the major consumption of these products has been also increased by the production of plastic waste which, invading lands and oceans, are provoking negative impacts on the Earth' ecosystems, causing environmental climatic disastersand serious human health problems [5, 6]. Just to remember the global cosmetic industry produces every year around 120 billion units of packaging much of which is not recycled [7]. Thus the necessity to change our way of living going versus a zero waste society. We have to leave the linear economy by which raw materials are collected and transformed into products to be used and discarded, for adopting the circular economy based on the 3R approach of reducing, reusing and recycling at zero waste [8] (figure 2).
Therefore, the urgent need to rethink the plastic production and consumption' systems reducing, substituting, recycling and disposing, the relative goods [8]. In the meantime, it should be necessary to take the opportunity for using all the actual waste bio-based materials to realize valuable and biodegradable bio-products, always remembering that bio- based materials are not necessarily compostable or biodegradable [9].
It is in fact, to underline that food waste, which accounts for nearly 60% of all the bio-waste produced, is rich of active ingredients as vitamins and minerals as well as of precious polymers, including biodegradable polysaccharides. It represents a precious raw material to make, for example, not only smart non-woven tissues and films for skin/body repairing [10, 11] and food and cosmetic packagings [12], but also smart carriers and innovative products [13, 14].
Among the polymers obtainable from waste, it is increasing a global interest for Chitin and Lignin with all their derived compounds [15, 16].
Thus, some activities of Chitin nanofibrils (CN) and Nano-Lignin(LG) will be reported, focusing the attention on the possibility to make different polymeric micro-nanoparticles (PL)which, embedded into biodegradable non-woven tissues and films, could be used as innovative carriersof Medical and Cosmetic use.
Chitin
Alpha-Chitin is a linear nitrogen-bearing biological polymer consisting of sugar molecules bonded together to form long polysaccharide chains. It consists of an sugar-like polymer of beta- [1, 4]-linked linear chains composed of more than 5,000 N-acetyl glucosamine units, representing the second most abundant natural polymer in Earth after cellulose[17]. In effect, chitin may be described as cellulose with one hydroxyl group on each monomer, replaced by an acetyl-amine group (fig.3).The polymer, as an unbranched chain of glucose, is recovered in many mineralized biological tissues combined with proteinaceus materials and organized in sheets of antiparallel polymeric chains (fig 4).These chains, held together by a large number of hydrogen bonds give to chitin an increased tensile strength. Its complex structure, in fact, provides the structural backbone of insect cuticles, crustacean exoskeletons, cephalopod shells, overing surfaces of many other living organisms and acting also as support of fungal, yeast and algae' cell walls
Therefore, the around 20 chains of Chitin, aggregated in the form of microfibrils, cross-linked with other components of the cell wall, are made by a complex hierarchical structure arranged in such a way to represent a structural biomaterial of high industrial interest for its particular mechanical properties. It, in fact, results useful to develop innovative natural composites when combined, for example, with its de-acetylated form chitosan or with other polymers, including polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) [18, 19]. However both Chitin and Chitosan have a great economic value because of their versatile biological and chemical activities, being alsobio- and eco-compatible, biodegradable, nontoxic nor allergizing agents [20, 21].Additionally the properties of these polymers, which depend from their selected origin and manufacturing process, are notably increased when they are used at micro-nano size dimension and pure stcrystallin form with a controlled grade of de-acetylation. At this purpose, our research group have produced pure Chitin nanofibrils (CN) and Chitosan obtained by a sustainable patented process at practically zero waste.
At this purpose, both CN and Chitosan were made from crustacean chitin of food grade, treating the polymeric powder by acid or alcaline solutions respectively, under continuous stirring at controlled temperature. The residue waste of nano-chitin and nano-chitosan at the last productive step, was practically zero. The remaining final exhausted powder, in fact, was used as plant fertilizer while the alkaline and acid solutions, mixed each to other, were used to produce a low quantity of sodium chloride. However, the 2% water suspension, obtained from the process with a pH interval between 2 and 4,contained around 300 trillions of chitin micro-nano crystals per milliliter with a mean dimension of 240x7x5 nano meters (fig 5),covered by positive charges [22,23].The presence of the positive charges on the chitin surface, has given the possibility to produce block co-polymeric micro/nano particles (PL) by its self-assembling (ionic gelation method) with electro negative polymers, including hyaluronic acid and Lignin (fig 6) [24].
Lignin
Weight of dry biomass on Earth is estimated to be 550 billion tons, 450 billionof which are represented by plants (Fig 7) [25].
It is however to remember that 75% of the plant biomass is composed of polysaccharides, 20% of which is represented by the biopolymer lignin.
Lignin, the structure of which is still unknown, is made up to 10-25% of a ligno-cellulosic biomass intimately bound like adhesive with cellulose and hemicellulose. It is represented by a complex phenolic three-dimensional and highly cross-linked polymeric molecules, composed of three substitute phenolic compounds such as,coumaryl, coniferyl and sinapsyl alcohols(fig 8) [26].
The polymer, as in cellulose or protein, lacks a regular and repetitive order of monomeric units, the composition of which varies according to the plant species. Thus lignin from herbaceous plants containsp-hydroxy phenyl, guaiacyl and syringyl units, whereas lignin from woody plants contains prevalently guaiacyl and syringyl ones [27].Unfortunately, this polymer available in large quantity as by-product from the industrial
processing of wood, energy crops, or agriculture residues, is until now commonly burned to obtain energy, while 2% only is used to produce low added value products, also if it represents an excellent source to produce valuable molecules and sustainable goods [28].However, lignin is considered an interesting antioxidant polymer to be used, for example, Slow down the ageing of both composites and biological systems [29]. Moreover, it has shown to possess an interesting UVA-UVB- absorbent ability attributable to the existence of abundance of chromophoric groups into its polymeric molecule [30]. Therefore, this specific activity may be of interest to develop transparent UV-absorbent film as well as UV-protective innovative non-woven cosmeceuticals-tissues and dressings [32, 41] Just as for chitin, effectiveness and safeness of lignin depends from its source, physicochemical characteristics, purity and size, so that, extracted from wheat straw, it has shown, for example, to have the greatest thermal stability and highest char-yield. For the reported reasons and its antibacterial activity, being an electro negative polymer, lignin has been selected from our research group in its nano-size to make micro-nano block polymeric particles with the electropositive CN [33, 34].At the nano-scale, in fact, size is one of the more important criteria that governs both physicochemical and biological behaviour of the final product. It has been shown, for example, that the ability of chitin to modulate the immune response depends on its size:its medium size (40-70 milli microns) activates TNF and IL-17 production having a pro-inflammatory activity, whereas the small-size(<40>)
Chitin-Lignin particles and biodegradable tissue-carriers
As shown by our previous studies[37, 38] this medical and cosmetic vehicle could represent an important part of any formulation, being fundamental for its effectiveness and safeness.
At this purpose for example, it is important for a formulation to predict how the vehicle' composition will affect the adsorption of the active ingredients into the skin controlling in advance the reactivity the product may have when applied on the different skin areas, or which might be the probable partition coefficient of the active ingredient, established between epidermis and the vehicle [39].Thus, the need to respect all the characteristics that a vehicle should have as reported on figure 9,considering also the active ingredients selected for the designed formulation.
As the right vehicle should be however, the primary purpose of the vehicle is to enable the cosmetic active ingredients to be conveniently released at level of the different skin layers, at the dose and time designed. It is to underline, in fact, that many parameters influence the final product composition, including physico chemical characteristics of both the active ingredients and the carrier selected as well as the formulation type and the final structure of the product with the manufacturing conditions used [39].
At this purpose we have proposed to utilize smart non-woven tissues and films as innovative carriers for medical and cosmetic use [40, 11]. These innovative carriers are made by natural polysaccharide-composites embedding micro-nano particles(NPs) of CN-LG [41] which in turn may encapsulate different active ingredients, necessary to characterize the tissues' activity. Thus, for example, nano-structured silver nano particles and glycyrrhetic acid have been realized to make advanced medications [16, 42] while micro-nano particles of nicotinamide, vitamins C and E have been used for making anti-aging cosmetic beauty masks (figure 10) [51, 42]. By the same technology, making pluri-strata tissues it should be possible to make biodegradable surgical masks [44-47], as well as it was possible to formulate gel and spray medications having an interesting skin repairing activity (figure 11) [16,48,49]. Regarding the surgical masks, the production and consumption of which have been increased for the COVID-19 pandemic, it is to remember not only the great waste caused from their use together with the other the non-biodegradable single-use plastic means [50], but also the irritative allergic contact dermatitis provoked on the face of medical doctors and patients [51].
As reported consumers, worried for the great waste and pollution invading our planet, are buying more cosmetics and food thinking this consumption useful for maintaining a nice look and an health y body [52]. Consequently, they are considering to purchase products skin- and environmeally-friendly, characterized for their effectiveness, safeness and for the ingredients used rather than for the price [53]. Moreover, consumers are oriented not only for products based on natural ingredients and made by sustainable technologies, but also packed by biodegradable containers, knowing that packagings constitute roughly 46% of the global plastic waste invading the oceans (54). Thus our propose to use these bio-based carriers in substitution of the usual emulsions go in this direction. In fact, both the non-woven tissues and films embedded by the reported micro- nanoparticles not only are made by natural and biodegradable polymers and ingredients, including chitin and lignin, but may be packed by biodegradable paper or aluminium foils.
Moreover, differently from the emulsions these innovative cosmeceutical- tissues are free of preservatives, emulsifiers, fragrances, colors and other chemicals often cause of allergic and sensitizing phenomena [10-16, 31-3337, 38, 40]. Least but not last, these innovative class of products are easily bio-degraded because the polymeric vehicles used to make the tissues as well as nano-chitin and nano-lignin utilized for the micro-Nano particles may be easily metabolized from the human enzymes, releasing molecule used as food and energy from the skin cells.
Idea of manuscript PM; writing original draft preparation PM, GM; writing-review and editing PM, GM, WEY, HDC; supervision PM, GM; All the authors have read and agreed to the publishing version of the manuscript.
None
The authors declared no conflict of interest
Clearly Auctoresonline and particularly Psychology and Mental Health Care Journal is dedicated to improving health care services for individuals and populations. The editorial boards' ability to efficiently recognize and share the global importance of health literacy with a variety of stakeholders. Auctoresonline publishing platform can be used to facilitate of optimal client-based services and should be added to health care professionals' repertoire of evidence-based health care resources.
Journal of Clinical Cardiology and Cardiovascular Intervention The submission and review process was adequate. However I think that the publication total value should have been enlightened in early fases. Thank you for all.
Journal of Women Health Care and Issues By the present mail, I want to say thank to you and tour colleagues for facilitating my published article. Specially thank you for the peer review process, support from the editorial office. I appreciate positively the quality of your journal.
Journal of Clinical Research and Reports I would be very delighted to submit my testimonial regarding the reviewer board and the editorial office. The reviewer board were accurate and helpful regarding any modifications for my manuscript. And the editorial office were very helpful and supportive in contacting and monitoring with any update and offering help. It was my pleasure to contribute with your promising Journal and I am looking forward for more collaboration.
We would like to thank the Journal of Thoracic Disease and Cardiothoracic Surgery because of the services they provided us for our articles. The peer-review process was done in a very excellent time manner, and the opinions of the reviewers helped us to improve our manuscript further. The editorial office had an outstanding correspondence with us and guided us in many ways. During a hard time of the pandemic that is affecting every one of us tremendously, the editorial office helped us make everything easier for publishing scientific work. Hope for a more scientific relationship with your Journal.
The peer-review process which consisted high quality queries on the paper. I did answer six reviewers’ questions and comments before the paper was accepted. The support from the editorial office is excellent.
Journal of Neuroscience and Neurological Surgery. I had the experience of publishing a research article recently. The whole process was simple from submission to publication. The reviewers made specific and valuable recommendations and corrections that improved the quality of my publication. I strongly recommend this Journal.
Dr. Katarzyna Byczkowska My testimonial covering: "The peer review process is quick and effective. The support from the editorial office is very professional and friendly. Quality of the Clinical Cardiology and Cardiovascular Interventions is scientific and publishes ground-breaking research on cardiology that is useful for other professionals in the field.
Thank you most sincerely, with regard to the support you have given in relation to the reviewing process and the processing of my article entitled "Large Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of The Prostate Gland: A Review and Update" for publication in your esteemed Journal, Journal of Cancer Research and Cellular Therapeutics". The editorial team has been very supportive.
Testimony of Journal of Clinical Otorhinolaryngology: work with your Reviews has been a educational and constructive experience. The editorial office were very helpful and supportive. It was a pleasure to contribute to your Journal.
Dr. Bernard Terkimbi Utoo, I am happy to publish my scientific work in Journal of Women Health Care and Issues (JWHCI). The manuscript submission was seamless and peer review process was top notch. I was amazed that 4 reviewers worked on the manuscript which made it a highly technical, standard and excellent quality paper. I appreciate the format and consideration for the APC as well as the speed of publication. It is my pleasure to continue with this scientific relationship with the esteem JWHCI.
This is an acknowledgment for peer reviewers, editorial board of Journal of Clinical Research and Reports. They show a lot of consideration for us as publishers for our research article “Evaluation of the different factors associated with side effects of COVID-19 vaccination on medical students, Mutah university, Al-Karak, Jordan”, in a very professional and easy way. This journal is one of outstanding medical journal.
Dear Hao Jiang, to Journal of Nutrition and Food Processing We greatly appreciate the efficient, professional and rapid processing of our paper by your team. If there is anything else we should do, please do not hesitate to let us know. On behalf of my co-authors, we would like to express our great appreciation to editor and reviewers.
As an author who has recently published in the journal "Brain and Neurological Disorders". I am delighted to provide a testimonial on the peer review process, editorial office support, and the overall quality of the journal. The peer review process at Brain and Neurological Disorders is rigorous and meticulous, ensuring that only high-quality, evidence-based research is published. The reviewers are experts in their fields, and their comments and suggestions were constructive and helped improve the quality of my manuscript. The review process was timely and efficient, with clear communication from the editorial office at each stage. The support from the editorial office was exceptional throughout the entire process. The editorial staff was responsive, professional, and always willing to help. They provided valuable guidance on formatting, structure, and ethical considerations, making the submission process seamless. Moreover, they kept me informed about the status of my manuscript and provided timely updates, which made the process less stressful. The journal Brain and Neurological Disorders is of the highest quality, with a strong focus on publishing cutting-edge research in the field of neurology. The articles published in this journal are well-researched, rigorously peer-reviewed, and written by experts in the field. The journal maintains high standards, ensuring that readers are provided with the most up-to-date and reliable information on brain and neurological disorders. In conclusion, I had a wonderful experience publishing in Brain and Neurological Disorders. The peer review process was thorough, the editorial office provided exceptional support, and the journal's quality is second to none. I would highly recommend this journal to any researcher working in the field of neurology and brain disorders.
Dear Agrippa Hilda, Journal of Neuroscience and Neurological Surgery, Editorial Coordinator, I trust this message finds you well. I want to extend my appreciation for considering my article for publication in your esteemed journal. I am pleased to provide a testimonial regarding the peer review process and the support received from your editorial office. The peer review process for my paper was carried out in a highly professional and thorough manner. The feedback and comments provided by the authors were constructive and very useful in improving the quality of the manuscript. This rigorous assessment process undoubtedly contributes to the high standards maintained by your journal.
International Journal of Clinical Case Reports and Reviews. I strongly recommend to consider submitting your work to this high-quality journal. The support and availability of the Editorial staff is outstanding and the review process was both efficient and rigorous.
Thank you very much for publishing my Research Article titled “Comparing Treatment Outcome Of Allergic Rhinitis Patients After Using Fluticasone Nasal Spray And Nasal Douching" in the Journal of Clinical Otorhinolaryngology. As Medical Professionals we are immensely benefited from study of various informative Articles and Papers published in this high quality Journal. I look forward to enriching my knowledge by regular study of the Journal and contribute my future work in the field of ENT through the Journal for use by the medical fraternity. The support from the Editorial office was excellent and very prompt. I also welcome the comments received from the readers of my Research Article.
Dear Erica Kelsey, Editorial Coordinator of Cancer Research and Cellular Therapeutics Our team is very satisfied with the processing of our paper by your journal. That was fast, efficient, rigorous, but without unnecessary complications. We appreciated the very short time between the submission of the paper and its publication on line on your site.
I am very glad to say that the peer review process is very successful and fast and support from the Editorial Office. Therefore, I would like to continue our scientific relationship for a long time. And I especially thank you for your kindly attention towards my article. Have a good day!
"We recently published an article entitled “Influence of beta-Cyclodextrins upon the Degradation of Carbofuran Derivatives under Alkaline Conditions" in the Journal of “Pesticides and Biofertilizers” to show that the cyclodextrins protect the carbamates increasing their half-life time in the presence of basic conditions This will be very helpful to understand carbofuran behaviour in the analytical, agro-environmental and food areas. We greatly appreciated the interaction with the editor and the editorial team; we were particularly well accompanied during the course of the revision process, since all various steps towards publication were short and without delay".
I would like to express my gratitude towards you process of article review and submission. I found this to be very fair and expedient. Your follow up has been excellent. I have many publications in national and international journal and your process has been one of the best so far. Keep up the great work.
We are grateful for this opportunity to provide a glowing recommendation to the Journal of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. We found that the editorial team were very supportive, helpful, kept us abreast of timelines and over all very professional in nature. The peer review process was rigorous, efficient and constructive that really enhanced our article submission. The experience with this journal remains one of our best ever and we look forward to providing future submissions in the near future.
I am very pleased to serve as EBM of the journal, I hope many years of my experience in stem cells can help the journal from one way or another. As we know, stem cells hold great potential for regenerative medicine, which are mostly used to promote the repair response of diseased, dysfunctional or injured tissue using stem cells or their derivatives. I think Stem Cell Research and Therapeutics International is a great platform to publish and share the understanding towards the biology and translational or clinical application of stem cells.
I would like to give my testimony in the support I have got by the peer review process and to support the editorial office where they were of asset to support young author like me to be encouraged to publish their work in your respected journal and globalize and share knowledge across the globe. I really give my great gratitude to your journal and the peer review including the editorial office.
I am delighted to publish our manuscript entitled "A Perspective on Cocaine Induced Stroke - Its Mechanisms and Management" in the Journal of Neuroscience and Neurological Surgery. The peer review process, support from the editorial office, and quality of the journal are excellent. The manuscripts published are of high quality and of excellent scientific value. I recommend this journal very much to colleagues.
Dr.Tania Muñoz, My experience as researcher and author of a review article in The Journal Clinical Cardiology and Interventions has been very enriching and stimulating. The editorial team is excellent, performs its work with absolute responsibility and delivery. They are proactive, dynamic and receptive to all proposals. Supporting at all times the vast universe of authors who choose them as an option for publication. The team of review specialists, members of the editorial board, are brilliant professionals, with remarkable performance in medical research and scientific methodology. Together they form a frontline team that consolidates the JCCI as a magnificent option for the publication and review of high-level medical articles and broad collective interest. I am honored to be able to share my review article and open to receive all your comments.
“The peer review process of JPMHC is quick and effective. Authors are benefited by good and professional reviewers with huge experience in the field of psychology and mental health. The support from the editorial office is very professional. People to contact to are friendly and happy to help and assist any query authors might have. Quality of the Journal is scientific and publishes ground-breaking research on mental health that is useful for other professionals in the field”.
Dear editorial department: On behalf of our team, I hereby certify the reliability and superiority of the International Journal of Clinical Case Reports and Reviews in the peer review process, editorial support, and journal quality. Firstly, the peer review process of the International Journal of Clinical Case Reports and Reviews is rigorous, fair, transparent, fast, and of high quality. The editorial department invites experts from relevant fields as anonymous reviewers to review all submitted manuscripts. These experts have rich academic backgrounds and experience, and can accurately evaluate the academic quality, originality, and suitability of manuscripts. The editorial department is committed to ensuring the rigor of the peer review process, while also making every effort to ensure a fast review cycle to meet the needs of authors and the academic community. Secondly, the editorial team of the International Journal of Clinical Case Reports and Reviews is composed of a group of senior scholars and professionals with rich experience and professional knowledge in related fields. The editorial department is committed to assisting authors in improving their manuscripts, ensuring their academic accuracy, clarity, and completeness. Editors actively collaborate with authors, providing useful suggestions and feedback to promote the improvement and development of the manuscript. We believe that the support of the editorial department is one of the key factors in ensuring the quality of the journal. Finally, the International Journal of Clinical Case Reports and Reviews is renowned for its high- quality articles and strict academic standards. The editorial department is committed to publishing innovative and academically valuable research results to promote the development and progress of related fields. The International Journal of Clinical Case Reports and Reviews is reasonably priced and ensures excellent service and quality ratio, allowing authors to obtain high-level academic publishing opportunities in an affordable manner. I hereby solemnly declare that the International Journal of Clinical Case Reports and Reviews has a high level of credibility and superiority in terms of peer review process, editorial support, reasonable fees, and journal quality. Sincerely, Rui Tao.
Clinical Cardiology and Cardiovascular Interventions I testity the covering of the peer review process, support from the editorial office, and quality of the journal.
