Abstract

One of the properties of chitosan is their capacity to trap cholesterol. Following this reasoning the incorporation of more amino and alkyl groups will increase the charge density in the macromolecule increasing the capability to retain bilic acids. A series of products from chitosan were prepared from the precursor carboxymethyl chitosan (CMQ). The aminoacids arginine and lysine were methylated in order to direct the amide bond formation and selectively incorporated in carboxymethyl chitosan macromolecule (CMQ-ARG and CMQ-LYS). Preliminary results of "in vitro" retention capacity in human hypercholesterolemic serum are reported. The cholesterol retention capacity was 49.62 ± 1.66 % for CMQ-ARG and 43.72 ± 1.65 % for CMQ-LYS using a 80 mg/mL polymer concentration. On the other hand, the chitosan show a 14.23 ± 0.81 % retention capacity. The increase in the amino group in chitosan derivatives increase the change density to improve the total binding capacity in vitro.