An Overview on the Pharmaceutical Applications of Nanocellulose

Agricultural crops are an important source of numerous types of agro-wastes that can be recycled to be used as a starting material for versatile products, which can create new channels of economic and industrial development. This chapter is focused on the use of the biopolymer, Cellulose, in the pharmaceutical field. Being the most abundant biomass generated from agricultural wastes, cellulose is explored widely in the pharmaceutical industry. An efficacious pharmaceutical ingredient should be safe, biocompatible, biodegradable, stable and cost-effective. The current chapter is spinning around the exploration of nanocellulose for the preparation of various types of drug delivery systems and dosage forms to be used via different routes of administration (oral, ocular, pulmonary, dermal, transdermal, parenteral and implantable). Merits, challenges and future prospects are also presented.