Natural Polymers for Drugs Delivery

Abstract

Drug delivery systems are often termed pharmaceutical formulations meant for the delivery of the therapeutic agents. The pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic behaviours of therapeutics agents in our body are directly linked with their physicochemical properties, i.e. Log P, solubility and plasma-protein interaction. So, these parameters need to be considered during formulation development process. The polymers help formulation scientists in maintaining or modifying the physicochemical properties of the therapeutics agent to get desired therapeutic response with minimal toxicity. The polymers are natural or synthetic large molecular weight macromolecules composed of repeating monomer units. Natural polymers are often termed biopolymers which are derived from the life cycle of the plant, bacteria, algae and animals. Towards the delivery of the active pharmaceutical ingredients, natural polymers played a major role. Natural polymers have inherent biocompatibility and biodegradability properties with ease of availability at an economical cost. That is why natural polymers always got special attention by the formulation scientists during the development of effective formulation. The significance of natural polymers is such that they are not only used in traditional medicine but also play an attractive role in the development of novel delivery systems. In this chapter, we provided an overview of different natural polymers and elaborated about their role in formulation development. © The Author (s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.