ABSTRACT
Hydrogels, which are three dimensional water swellable polymer networks, existing with many advantageous polymer characteristics, have been attracting many researchers due to their unique methods of preparation to achieve inimitable properties such as high water absorbability, biocompatibility, permeability, soft and rubber consistency. Carbohydrates are widely used in drug delivery applications as they are natural, nontoxic, and biocompatible and have various desirable functional groups along the polymer chains which can readily form network structures with other polymers offering desirable properties. These properties could make carbohydrate-based hydrogels a first class biodegradable material for several biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. The present review prominently focuses on recent advances in the development of carbohydrate-based hydrogels, their advantageous features, applications 114and subsequent future perspectives, particularly in drug delivery systems. Indeed, this chapter has been arranged in four separate sections including defining hydrogels and their beneficial properties; exploration of a wide range of carbohydrates employed in different hydrogel architectures and their developing methods; illustration of stimuli-responsive behaviour of hydrogels towards different environmental stimuli; and description of applications of carbohydrate-based hydrogels, particularly in the area of cancer drug delivery. The chapter ends with a look at some of the features and future trends for the utilization of natural polysaccharides based hydrogels in diverse applications.
