Polymers have been successfully investigated and employed
in the formulation of solid, liquid and semi-solid dosage
forms and are specifically useful in the design of novel drug
delivery systems. Both synthetic and natural polymers have
3 been investigated extensively for this purpose . Synthetic
polymers are toxic, expensive, have environment related
issues, need long development time for synthesis and are
freely available in comparison to naturally available
polymers. However the use of natural polymers for pharmaceutical applications is attractive because they are
economical, readily available, non-toxic and capable of
chemical modifications, potentially biodegradable and with
few exceptions and also biocompatible.
A large number of plant-based pharmaceutical excipients are
available today. Many researchers have explored the
usefulness of plant-based materials as pharmaceutical
excipients. Ability to produce a wide range of material based
on their properties and molecular weight, natural polymers
became a thrust area in majority of investigations in drug
4 delivery systems . Natural gums can also be modified to meet
the requirements of drug delivery systems and thus can
compete with the synthetic excipients available in the market