Chitosan: A Bioactive Polysaccharide in Marine-Based Foods

Since people are increasingly conscious of the relationship between diet and health, the consumption of marine-based foods has been growing continuously. Consumers identified seafoods as nutritious and complete foods. Hence, they are perceived them as an excellent source of high quality proteins, valuable lipids with high amounts of PUFA. These compounds are well known to contribute to the enhancement of human health by different alternatives such as reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary disease and hypertension. Additionally, marine-based food products are easily digested and constitute excellent source of essential minerals. Recently, seafoods have been recognized as nutraceuticals or functional foods. Functional foods, first evolved in Japan in 1980, are defined as foods demonstrating beneficial effect on one or more targeted functions on human organism (Ross, 2000). Marine-based functional foods or nutraceuticals, include omega-3 fatty acids, chitin and chitosan, fish protein hydrolysates, algal constituents, carotenoids, antioxidants, fish bone, shark cartilage, taurine and bioactive compounds (Kadam & Prabhasankar, 2010).