Chitin beads, chitosan beads, process for preparing these beads,

Details Chitin beads, chitosan beads, process for preparing these beads, Chitin beads, chitosan beads, process for preparing these beads,

1998-12-30

2000-12-05

Levy, Neil S.

Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions

Preparations characterized by special physical form

Biocides; animal or insect repellents or attractants

424405, 424406, 424418, 424489, 424493, 424494, 424499, 514 55, A01N 2528, A01N 2526

Patent

active

061563307

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to chitin beads having a uniform and fine particle size and comprising microsporidian spores whose major cell wall substance is chitin; chitosan beads comprising N-deacetylated chitin and having a uniform and fine particle size; methods for preparing these beads; carrier comprising these bead; and a method for preparing microsporidian spores.


BACKGROUND ART

Chitosan is excellent in physicochemical adsorptivity, biocompatibility and biodegradability and accordingly, the chitosan is a biopolymer which has been able to widely be used in various industrial fields as, for instance, a material for medicine/medical treatment, perfumes, cosmetics, adhesive/paints and varnishes, and duplication/recording-display. On the other hand, porous beads whose particle size does not widely vary have been used, as carriers for immobilization of, for instance, enzymes, in a wide variety of industrial fields such as chemical industries, medical treatments, food industries and industrial processes. For this reason, if porous beads of chitosan having a uniform particle size can be provided, they may be used and utilized in a variety of fields.
Chitosan beads have conventionally been produced by, for instance, the following complicated method. First of all, inorganic substances are removed from components which constitute the exoskeleton of crustaceans to give chitosan and then the resulting chitosan is sufficiently dissolved in an organic acid to form a uniform dope. This dope is dropwise added to or discharged into a basic coagulating liquid to thus give chitosan beads (see Knorr, D., M. Daly: Mechanics and diffusional changes observed in multi-layer chitosan/alginate coacervate capsules, Process Biochemistry, 1988, 4, pp. 48-50).


DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

In the foregoing conventional method, the particle size and the porosity of the resulting chitosan beads would widely vary depending on, for instance, the rate of desolvation and rates of penetration and diffusion of the coagulating liquid into the resulting beads. For this reason, it is quite difficult to make the particle size of these beads uniform, thus the production of chitosan beads having the uniform particle size requires complicated preparation procedures and skill in the workers and this accordingly makes it difficult to effect mass production thereof. Thus, there has been desired for the development of a method for preparing chitosan beads having the uniform and fine particle size according to production procedures which can easily be carried out and can be excellent in yield, efficiency and economy.
The present invention has solved or eliminated the foregoing problems associated with the conventional techniques by making the most use of the fact that the spores of Microsporozoa having a uniform and fine particle size and whose major cell wall substance comprises chitin can highly efficiently be produced in insect's bodies or within cultured cells. More specifically, the object of the present invention is to provide a method for efficiently and economically preparing chitin beads, chitosan beads and microsporidian spores each having the uniform and fine particle size, while making use of the fact that chitin is the major component of the cell wall substance of particulate microsporidian spores, as well as the beads having the uniform and fine particle size prepared by the method and a carrier which comprises these beads having the uniform and fine particle size.
The inventors of the present invention have conducted intensive investigations to develop a novel technique for utilizing a biopolymer originated from insects. The inventors have taken note of the facts that the microsporidian spores can be produced in the insect's bodies or cultured cells in a high efficiency and each of the resulting microsporidian spores thus produced has the uniform particle size and has a shape of a sphere or an elliptical sphere and that the major cell wall substance of the microsporidian spores is chitin; have found out, for the

REFERENCES:
patent: 5645844 (1997-07-01), Henderson et al.
patent: 5696098 (1997-12-01), Myraki
patent: 5885603 (1999-03-01), Fowler et al.

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