Bipolymers- Cyclodextrin essays

Bipolymers- Cyclodextrin essays 9.221 Recent Development and use of.... Q) Use available evidence to gather and present data from secondary sources and analyse progress in the recent development and use of a named biopolymer. This analysis should name the specific enzyme(s) used or organism used to synthesise the material and an evaluation of the use or potential use of the polymer produced related to its properties. Cyclodextrin was first discovered by Villiers in 1891 although back then he called it cellulosine. Later Shardinger discovered that there were actually three types of Cyclodextrins; alpha, beta and gamma. By the mid 1970s all these different complexes could be chemically characterized. We have found that Cyclodextrin can be synthesized in nature via an enzyme called, cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase or enzyme CGTase for short. Below is a picture of CGTase: The catalytic site is the area in which it brings together the many sugars to form the actual cyclodextrin. This enzyme can be naturally found in some organisms including Bacillus Macerans. Further below is a picture of cyclodextrin, it is made up of seven glucose rings and are stuck together through the CGTase enzyme. With cyclodextrins being around for over 100 years why is it that we have recently just been able to apply them to many uses, some reasons are that there have been very high costs in developing the cyclodextrins, the availability of the chemical and enzyme and the general conception that these cyclodextrins were toxic. Yet only recently have scientists been able to develop cheap effective ways of the production of cyclodextrin and the detoxifying of these cyclodextrins which have provided many uses for them throughout our life. The first major use for these cyclodextrins is in the pharmaceuticals industry which is now heavily using cyclodextrin in many of their drugs. The reason why they use cyclodextrin is because it: -Enhance the drugs poor aqueous solubility ...