We studied the preparationof -chitosan,
/and theproductshave been comprehensively analysed.
/Consequently, -chitosan with a high DDA value and a high Mw was obtained.
/ The determination of the moisture, ash content and heavy metal contents are critical
to the developments with and application of -chitosan.
/ However, we used microwave-assisted technology to reduce the Mw of the
-chitosan to 1 × 104 g/mol quickly.
/ When increasing the amount of H2O2, the rate of degradation increased while the minimum
Mw decreased from 3 × 103 to 1 × 104 g/mol.
/ Eventually, we prepared -chitosan with different Mw ranging from above 4 × 106 to
1 × 103 g/mol.
/ The IR, XRD and NMR data confirmed that the - chitosan had the proper structure at different Mw.
/Therefore, the preparation and degradation motheds used for -chitosan in this paper were effective without altering the configuration of the chitosan.
/Increasing the solubility of -chitosan enabled studies of its antiviral activity against NDV. /The degraded -chitosan showed excellent antiviral activity and might be treated as a potential veterinary drug in future research.