General Veterinary Biochemistry

CHITIN

• It is an important structural polysaccharide of invertebrates. It is the principal component of hard exoskeleton of nearly a million species viz., insects, lobsters and crabs.
• It is the second most abundant polysaccharide, next to cellulose.
• It is a homopolymer of N-Acetyl – D – glucosamine linked by β(1 4) linkage.
• The only chemical difference from cellulose is replacement of a hydroxyl group at C- 2 with an acetylated amino group.