Quitina y quitosano: materiales del pasado para el presente y el futuro

The present work shows, in a clear and simple way, industrial production and common applications oftwo ancient natural polymers on earth but very current due to its application possibilities: chitin andchitosan. Here a simple sample of the wide possible range are described, being shown these due to therelevance that these may have in the development of vital areas in the country like: agriculture (seedsprotection, fertilizers and fungicides controlled release, etc.), waste water treatment (flocculants,coagulant, demetalization agents, dyes removing agents, pesticides, etc.) medicine (glucosamineproduction, healing creams, genetic therapy, etc.), cosmetics (slimming, moisturizing agent,preservative germicide in soaps, shampoos, etc.) and biosensors (detection of pathogenic agents infoods, toxic species in residual waters, etc.).