Chitosan grafted monomethyl fumaric acid as a potential food preservative

• Chitosan was modified with monomethyl fumaric acid in an aqueous solution.
• Chitosan derivatives were obtained with different degree of substitution.
• Antimicrobial, antioxidant and solubility of chitosan has been improved to a great extent.

The present study aims at in vitro antibacterial and antioxidant activity evaluation of chitosan modified with monomethyl fumaric acid (MFA) using 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC) as mediator. Three different kinds of chitosan derivatives Ch-Ds-1,Ch-Ds-2 and Ch-Ds-3 were synthesized by feeding different concentration of MFA. The chemical structures of resulting materials were characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, HR-XRD, FT-IR and TNBS assay. The results showed that Ch-Ds-1, Ch-Ds-2 and Ch-Ds-3 were successfully synthesized. The % amino groups of chitosan modified by MFA were evaluated by TNBS assay and ranging from 1.82 ± 0.05% to 7.88 ± 0.04%. All the chitosan derivatives are readily soluble in water and swelled by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), toluene and dimethyl formamide (DMF). The antioxidant activity for all the chitosan derivatives have been significantly improved (P < 0.05) compared to the chitosan. Upon antibacterial activity at pH 4.0, all the chitosan derivatives showed significant (P < 0.05) antibacterial activity against Gram positive Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes strains and Gram negative Escherichia coli and Salmonella enteritidis strains compared to chitosan. In conclusion, MFA modified chitosan has shown enhanced activities along with solubility, and could be used as a novel food preservative and packaging material for long time food safety and security.