Synergistic Antimicrobial Activity of Chitosan Hydrolysates derived fromthe Hydrolysis of High Molecular Weight Chitosan using Immobilized Enzyme

Abstract

The features of antibacterial activity of chitosan with different molecular weight and with antibiotics are discussed in this study. Depolymerization of high molecular weight chitosan(HMWC) mediated by enzymatic effects was observed in the concentration of enzyme immobilized onto a matrix and time dependent manner. Antibacterial activity of chitosan hydrolysates CTSN-P8 and CTSN-B3 in the presence or absence of antibiotics was investigated. Synergistic antibacterial activity of CTSN-P8 with Kanamycin against Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli was observed based on the dependence of molecular weight of chitosan. On the other hand, significant antifungal activity of CTSN-B3 was observed in morphological changes of Penicillium italicum. Our data demonstrate the critical importance of microbial species and the size of chitosan that can provide some potent biologically activity without significant depressive activity of antibiotics.