Abstract

NOVEL NATURAL MUCOADHESIVE POLYMERS

Suhel Khan*, Nayyar Parvez, Pramod Kumar Sharma

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there has been a tremendous development in natural products which are needed to be used for a variety of purposes. Nature has provided us a wide variety of materials to help improve and sustain the health of all living things. A Polymer is a large macromolecule composed of many repeated subunits. Polymers are of two types, Synthetic and Natural polymers. Natural polymers occur widely in nature and can be extracted. These are basically polysaccharides. They are water soluble and water insoluble. Natural polymers have been used as pharmaceutical excipients. They are biocompatible without any side effect, Various Natural polymers for example Guar gum, Okara gum, Locust bean gum, Pectin, Amylose, Chitosan, Alginate, Xanthan gum, are used in various pharmaceutical formulations. They serve as a potential candidate for novel drug delivery system (NDDS). Synthetic polymers are human made polymers, for examples of synthetic polymers include Polythene, Polyester, epoxy, etc. Natural polymers offers various advantages such as non-toxicity, less cost, easy availability and chemically inert. This review provides insight into the natural polymers used for the formulation of mucoadhesive drug delivery systems.

Keywords: Mucoadhesive drug delivery, Natural polymer, Chitosan, gums, mucilage,