Antomicrobial Activity amd Preservative Dffects of chitosan on cosmetic Products

Chitin and chitosan have been almost neglected until 1960's although they second largest biomass on earth. Chitosan is a partially deacetylated chitin and belongs to the class of cationic biopolymers. We investigated the antimicrobial activity of chitosan as natural preservatives in cosmetic products. Antimicrobial activity of chitosan against some microorganisms was investigated. The results indicated that chitosan had an effectiveness against some bacteria. We found that chitosan had minimum inhibitory concentataions as low as 100 ppm to S. aureus ATCC 6538, E. coli ATCC 1634 and P. aeruginosa KCTC 2004. But there was not effects to Asp. Niger ATCC 1374 at 1,000 ppm. Also, formuias preserved with chitosan have been subjected to preservative efficacy tests to some microorganisms. Formla preserved with 0.5% chitosan had an effective antimicrobial activity against the Gram (+) and Gram (-) bacteria but not fungi. It is possible to dertermine the formulas with chitosan, which would be effective to reduce the artificial preservatives.