ABSTRACT
Interpenetrating network is composed of two hydrophilic polymers, which are cross-linked in the presence of other to give a three-dimensional hydrogel network producing free volume for easy encapsulation of drugs. The hydrogels swell but do not dissolve in simulated biological fluids due to chemical or physical crosslinks. The swelling ability of hydrogel network enables them to regulate the release of encapsulated drugs over an extended period by controlling the degree of crosslinking. Now-a-days, naturally occurring polymers are preferred to synthetic materials due to their non-toxicity and biodegradability. Further, the biopolymers are easily amenable to chemical crosslinking/modification due to the presence of a variety of functional groups in the monomer units. Homopolymers alone cannot meet the demand in terms of both properties and drug delivery performance. Therefore, biopolymer-based interpenetrating network (IPN) hydrogels appears to be a better approach. This chapter discusses the design of biopolymer-based IPN hydrogels and their oral controlled drug delivery applications reported in the literature in the last decade.
