A bibliometric study of Chitosan Applications: Insights from processes

Chitosan is a high-value compound in the world market and can be obtained, mostly, from crustaceans, as they are shrimps, crabs, and lobsters, but other sources are fungal cell walls and algae. In 2027, the size of the market is estimated at 28.93 billion dollars according to intelligence on emerging markets for academic institutions around the world, (EMIS ®). Chitosan, is composed of β-(1→ 4) D-glucosamine and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine units and typically is the result of the deacetylation of chitin. Technically, this compound is a biopolymer and represents 30 to 40 % of the structure of the exoskeleton of the shrimp. Through qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the properties of chitosan depends on the deacetylation degrees and molecular weight. Currently, of the total chitosan produced worldwide, 23 % is destined for the pharmaceutical 22 % for the food industry, 18 % for the cosmetic industry, and finally water treatment with 17 %. In the pharmaceutical industry, the highest degrees of deacetylate were used, between 70 to 90 %. This work exposes the level of investigation using 3 search equations, using Scopus® as the main database and Vosviewer® to understand the relationship between keywords. Additionally, the main countries that were published, main authors, and areas of interest, among other topics are analyzed. Asian countries such as China or Japan are the largest researchers. This is the result of the fact that they are the countries with the highest investment the areas of interest will focus on the chemical engineering environment and chemical engineering. The pharmaceutical, food, and tissue engineering industries are the means of greatest information (75 % of the total researcher).