A REVIEW ARTICLE ON NATURAL POLYMERS USED IN PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULATIONS

Abstract

Polymers have been successfully employed in the formulation ofsolid, liquid and semisolid dosage 
forms and are specifically useful in the design of modified release drug delivery system. Both 
synthetic and natural polymers have been investigated extensively for this purpose, but the use of 
natural polymersfor pharmaceutical applicationsis attractive because they are economical, readily 
available, non toxic, and capable of chemical modifications, potentially biodegradable and with 
few exceptions, also biocompatible. One of the most remarkable and useful features of a polymers 
swelling ability manifestsitself when thatswelling can be triggered by a change in the environment 
surrounding the delivery system. This review mainly put emphasis on description of various 
natural polymers used in drug delivery development process. Polymers are macromolecules which 
are composed of structurally similar repeated units of monomers. Natural polymers are the ones 
that are obtained from natural origins like plants, animals or micro-organism. Natural polymers 
are widely used in pharmaceutical and biochemical industries and their applications are growing 
at the fast pace as the basic knowledge of polymers helps us to know the function of drug product 
and also todevelop new formulations or better delivery systems.