ABSTRACT
Xylan, an abundant biopolymer mainly extracted from plants and algae, is commonly studied for textile, food and biomedical applications. In this review, different approaches to obtain xylan-based products for drug delivery purposes were described. Investigations about xylan-based films, micro- and nanostructure, with the ability or not to swell (hydrogels), developed for biomedical applications, were summarized. Furthermore, a section on colon drug delivery and the methods that have been developed for the evaluation of these systems were presented.
Subject(s)
Pharmaceutical Preparations/administration & dosage , Pharmaceutical Preparations/chemistry , Xylans/chemistry , Biopolymers/chemistry , Colon/drug effects , Drug Delivery Systems/methods , Humans , Hydrogels/chemistry , Nanostructures/chemistryABSTRACT
This work describes the preparation and evaluation of safe xylan-based microparticles prepared by cross-linking polymerization using sodium trimetaphosphate. The resulting microparticles were evaluated for morphology, particle size, polymer-cross-link agent interaction, and in vitro toxicity. The microparticles showed narrow monodisperse size distributions with their mean sizes being between 3.5 and 12.5 µm in dried state. FT-IR analyzes confirmed the interaction between sodium trimetaphosphate and xylan during the cross-linking process with formation of phosphate ester bonds. Additionally, the X-ray diffraction patterns and FT-IR analyzes suggested that little or no cross-linking agent remained inside the microparticles. Furthermore, the in-vitro studies using Artemia salina and human erythrocytes revealed that the microparticles are not toxic. Therefore, the overall results suggest that these xylan microparticles can be used as a platform for new drug delivery system.
