Application of natural and modified Polymers in Novel Drug Delivery: A review

Abstract

Polymers are high molecular weight compounds consisting of monomers which are repeating small units’ offers as a backbone to the macromolecular structure. Natural polymers can be rendered water-soluble by chemical modification have been the subject of extensive technical reviews and original research reports, over the past fifty years. Early interests of natural polymers were associated with the food, paper, leather and textile industries and to a lesser extent, the cosmetics and Pharmaceutical industries. These natural polymers have advantages over synthetic polymers, since these are chemically inert, nontoxic, less expensive, biodegradable and widely available. Natural polymer can also be modified in different ways to obtain tailor made materials for drug-delivery systems and thus can compete with the available synthetic polymer. Moreover, the large number of pharma industry showed their interest towards these naturally derived polymers to discover, extract and purify such compounds from the natural origin. Modified polymers are the potent candidates to be used in various pharmaceutical dosages as a potential candidate for novel drug delivery system (NDDS). Therefore in this review, potential application of modified and non-modified natural polymers in various drug delivery systems has been described.