Recently, the chitosan-starch films have attracted great attention because of their precious applications in various areas such as food packaging industries, wounds dressings (artificial skin), tissue engineering, antibacterial agents and carriers in drug delivery/drug release systems especially anticancer drugs. Among diverse available edible films, substantial interest has been given to chitosan because of its exceptional antibacterial properties as well as its abundant available commercial suppliers. Herein, the properties and potential applications of chitosan-starch biofilms and their composites are reviewed. The important applications such as wounds dressings, tissue engineering, antibacterial properties, carriers in drug delivery and drug release systems as well as food packaging purposes are also focused and presented.

Dr. Zahra Shariatinia is an Associate Professor at Amirkabir University of Technology (Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran, from 2006 until now. She has got her Ph.D. degree in 2005 from Tarbiat Modares University, Iran, in Inorganic Chemistry. Her research areas are synthesis and applications of phosphoramides and their complexes plus nanoparticles.