Quaternized carboxymethyl chitosan (QCMC) was prepared from which carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) was prepared from chitosan first, then N-quaternary ammonium group was introduced by the reaction of CMC with 2, 3-epoxypropyl trimethylammonium. The structures of the derivatives were characterized by FTl-IR, XRD, C-13 NMR, H-1 NMR and gel permeation chromatography. In vitro antimicrobial activities of QCMC were evaluated against Escherichia coli, which is a Gram-negative bacterium, and Staphylococcus aureus, which is a Gram-positive bacterium. In compared with carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) and quarternary chitosan (QC) of the same degree of substitusion (DS), we found that QCMC has stronger antimicrobial activity. Then we went deep into study of the relationship between their structure and antimicrobial activity, found that the DS of CMC do little effect to their antimicrobial activity, but as the increase of their DS of quaternization or the decrease of their molecular weight, the antimicrobial activity of QCMC become stronger. QCMC was complexed with calcium hydroxide as pulp-cap. Animal experiment results indicated that QCMC can strongly induce reparative dentine formation and showed a better ability in dentin inducing compared with calcium hydroxide. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.