Water-Soluble Pure Chitosan Developed

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In a matter of a few years you could be drinking water containing chitosan from your tap while enlisted soldiers dine on cafeteria food laced with the same substance.

Chitosan is obtained from Chitin, a substance naturally found in the shells of crustaceans and the exoskeletons of insects. Crab and shrimp shells are used for the commercial extraction of the substance. Once chitin goes through a process known as deacethylation, chitosan is produced.

Chitosan may some day be found in cosmetics and very meats and vegetables you consume may be fed and treated with chitosan-laced livestock feeds and fertilizers.

All this has now become a commercial possibility as the world's first 100 percent water soluble chitosan has been developed by a Korean husband- and-wife team, with the man handling the manufacturing process and his better half taking up the marketing and technical side.

Suh Sang-bong, 42-year-old former Korea Institute of Technology (KIST) researcher and his wife You Hyang-ja, 40, have already established two venture firms called Ja Kwang and RNC Tech. The former specializes in producing chitosan and the latter takes charge of using …