ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on alginates (ALGs) applied to herbal natural compounds and gene materials to improve the performance. In fact, they form a film able to avoid natural products from oxidation/degradation phenomena; are excellent carriers to enhance their shelf life, prolong their antioxidant efficiency, and also for adding nutritive value and functional properties to nutraceutical compounds. Moreover, in the delivery of nucleic acid materials, ALG derivatives have been widely used as polymeric backbones for the formation of systems which can be provided as valuable gene delivery carriers. In particular, sodium ALG is an edible biocompatible coating polymer, water-soluble, approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration as food additive and capable of forming a hydrogel polymer matrix which allows a good diffusion of the bioactive compounds. ALG-based delivery systems for topical application of natural compounds is not only restricted to hydrocolloids but also even include microparticles.
