After a long search for a better way to stop extreme bleeding, the U.S. Army has purchased more than 400,000 bandages made from chitosan, a polysaccharide extracted from the exoskeletons of Icelandic shrimp.
Chitosan is a mucoadhesive, which means it gets very sticky when wet with blood. It's a derivative of chitin, the hard carbohydrate found in insect and shellfish exoskeletons, and has been used by tissue engineers as a scaffold for growing new body parts. It has also been used to deliver drugs.
Although they are edible and made from shrimp, the bandages don't taste a bit like seafood. More importantly, they will not cause a deadly reaction in people who are allergic to shellfish. Allergic reactions are triggered by protein -- chitosan is a carbohydrate.
The only question remaining is: Who gets to eat all the leftover Icelandic shrimp?
Link : Wired
Tags: Shrimp Bandages | Medical
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