Abstract

NATURAL MUCILAGES AND ROLE IN DRUG DELIVWRY-A REVIEW

C. Murali Krishna Goud*

ABSTRACT

Natural mucilages got an importance as a pharmaceutical excipients as they have benefits like local availability, biocompatibility, lack of toxicity, biodegradability and better patience tolerance. Because of these advantages natural mucilages can be used in the place of synthetic and refined polymers in novel drug delivery systems to fulfill multitask functions like mucoadhesion, disintegration; binding, sustained action, stabilization etc, properties to the novel dosage forms. The present review outlines the natural polysaccharides and their role in drug delivery. Also this review covers advantages, disadvantages, isolation, applications of natural mucilage. In the present review I have discussed mucilages, as excipients to be used in various pharmaceutical formulations. I have also compiled the various sources which may lead to significant mucilage production and also the extraction procedure. The various properties have been dealt in detail, which makes it a potential candidate to be used as pharmaceutical excipient. Being a naturally occurring polysaccharide, in recent year it has gained increased importance in industrial applications. The benefits of natural carbohydrates are also more and more appreciated by the scientists and consumers from various industries due to its inertness, biocompatibility, and biodegradability.

Keywords: Mucilage, Applications, Isolation, Plants, Role.