Title:Colonic Drug Delivery Systems Based on Natural Polysaccharides and their Evaluation
VOLUME: 13 ISSUE: 13
Author(s):Lalduhsanga Pachuau and Bhaskar Mazumder
Affiliation:Department of Pharmacy, Regional Institute of Paramedical and Nursing Sciences, Zemabawk, Aizawl – 796017. Mizoram, India.
Keywords:Colonic drug delivery, Crohn’s disease, polysaccharides, γ-Scintigraphy, Ulcerative colitis, X-ray studies.
Abstract:Natural polysaccharides are found in abundance, are inexpensive, safe and available in a variety of structures
which can easily be modified chemically and biochemically. A number of natural gums and mucilages along with their
chemically modified forms have been evaluated as controlled drug delivery devices. They are reported to be capable of
providing the desired drug release profiles and in some cases, have shown comparable drug release properties with
currently available sustained release products in the market. Colon specific drug delivery based on natural polysaccharides
has highly been acclaimed in recent years. A colon specific drug delivery system should prevent drug release in the
stomach as well as the small intestine. Several polysaccharides have been reported to be capable of preventing drug
release in the upper GI tract while being susceptible to enzymatic degradation by colonic bacterial enzymes. A wide range
of natural or modified polysaccharides has been investigated for peroral delivery of drugs to the colon. As the release of
drug from these polysaccharides based systems is independent of pH and gastric emptying time these polysaccharides based
systems are considered the most effective and preferable means for colonic drug delivery in terms of target specificity.
