AN IN VITRO STUDY FOR SUSTAINABLE VALORIZATION OF CHANNA PUNCTATA FISH-SCALE WASTE INTO BIOACTIVE CHITOSAN FOR ANTI-INFLAMMATORY APPLICATIONS

Abstract

There are many acute and chronic diseases that are associated with inflammation․ There is a great demand to discover new natural and safe anti-inflammatory agents․ Chitosan is a biocompatible natural polysaccharide obtained by deacetylation of chitin․ Chitosan is widely studied for its various biological activities‚ including its anti-inflammatory activity․ Anti-inflammatory activity of commercial chitosan was compared with the fish chitosan obtained from Channa punctata․ Different mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory activity of chitosan were examined‚ by assessing its ability to inhibit proteinase and hyaluronidase‚ LOX activity (using synthetic substrate for LOX reaction)‚ as well as its ability to stabilize the membrane of erythrocytes‚ by investigating its effect on hemolysis induced by heating and hypotonicity․ The inhibitory activities of both chitosan were compared with the anti-inflammatory drugs diclofenac sodium‚ aspirin‚ and indomethacin․ In both cases‚ a concentration-dependent inhibitory effect was observed‚ with commercial chitosan showing a stronger inhibitory effect at a lower concentration and fish chitosan at a higher concentration․ The in vitro anti inflammatory activity of fish extracts was attributed to the anti-inflammatory potential of Channa punctata chitosan based on its ability to inhibit certain enzymes and stabilize the cell membrane․ The anti-inflammatory mechanism of chitosan is probably linked to the inhibition of certain enzymes involved in the inflammatory response and the stabilization of cell membranes․ Thus‚ we conclude that the biological potency of chitosan is influenced by its source and concentration․ Thus‚ chitosan obtained from fish (Channa punctata) holds important anti-inflammatory activity and can be explored as an alternative to the commercially available chitosan obtained from other sources․ Valorizing fish processing waste is a sustainable method of producing bioactive chitosan for further in vivo experiments and development into new anti inflammatory drugs for testing in clinical trials․