Abstract:
The objective of the current work is to determine the antibacterial activity of chitosan against a panel of pathogenic strains selected for this test after carrying out the extraction of this polymer from shrimp shells.
The extraction of chitin and chitosan was successfully carried out using a conventional extraction technique (chemical method) carried out in four stages (demineralization, deproteinization, bleaching and deacetylation).
The antibacterial activity of chitosan, carried out by the diffusion method on agar medium, showed an inhibitory effect of chitosan against the different strains tested (E. coli, S. aureus, P. aeruginosa and B. cereus) with a slight effect more important against the P. aeruginosa strain (13.5 mm in diameter) compared to the other strains (11 mm for E. coli, 9 mm for B. cereus and 8 mm for S. aureus).
The inhibitory effect of this biopolymer, suggests its use for the treatment of many infectious diseases caused by pathogenic germs.