Chitosan Production by Fungi: Current State of Knowledge, Future Opportunities and Constraints

Abstract

Conventionally, the commercial supply of chitin and chitosan relies on shellfish wastes as the extraction sources. However, the fungal sources constitute a valuable option, especially for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications, due to the batch‐to‐batch unsteady properties of chitin and chitosan from conventional ones. Fungal production of these glycans is not affected by seasonality enables accurate process control and, consequently, more uniform properties of the obtained product. Moreover, liquid and solid production media often are derived from wastes, thus enabling the application of circular economy criteria and improving the process economics. The present review deals with fungal chitosan production processes focusing on waste‐oriented and integrated production processes. In doing so, contrary to other reviews that used a genus‐specific approach for organizing the available information, the present one bases the discussion on the bioprocess typology. Finally, the main process parameters affecting chitosan production and their interactions are critically discussed.