Alginate-based nanomaterials in drug delivery applications

The term “biopolymers” means polymers of natural origin. Alginates are the most versatile biopolymers and have found many applications in drug delivery because of their chemical structure with hydroxyl and carboxylate moieties. They are water-soluble, naturally occurring anionic, linear, and unbranched polysaccharide polymers. They have many favorable properties like thickening, gel-forming, stabilizing biodegradability and biocompatibility. The alginate's bioadhesive nature makes it widely useful in the pharmaceutical industry. It has various uses as pharmaceutical excipients and also makes an important contribution in the development of polymeric delivery systems. They are formulated mainly as gels, matrices, membranes, nanospheres, microspheres, etc. The alginate-based nanomaterials include hydrogels, nanoparticles, nanofibers, nanoaggregates, nanocomposites, and nanocapsules, and these designs have various potential applications in numerous fields such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, and gene therapy. In this chapter, alginate-based nanomaterials, their method of preparations, and their applications in drug delivery are discussed.