ABSTRACT
While naturally occurring biodegradable polymer materials are acquiring increasing attention in pharmaceutical industries owing to its burgeoning application with biocompatibility, non-toxicity, low cost, abundance, and high dispersibility, there have been circumscribed apprehension of the possible applications of Gum Tragacanth (GT) as an excipient for 50therapeutic enhancement of drug delivery system. Nevertheless, latterly, GT has been looked into as nanoparticles conjugated-cargos for mucosal, oral, nasal, topical therapeutic formulations. Fabricated GT with tunable functionality affords new exciting prospects extrapolating GT as a promising excipient compared to its counterparts. Macromolecular prodrug GT is a polysaccharide, swellable; bioadhesive to the target tissue, readily reabsorbed and its non-immunogenic physiochemical properties make it an excellent candidate for the nano-drug carrier. Therefore, this chapter concealments the elaborated overview of the most recent biomedical and pharmaceutical applications and challenges of natural carbohydrate polymer GT, in special reference to varied hydrogel-based tissue engineering, skin repair, nerve regeneration, bone repair, dental repair, nano-encapsulation, controlled site-specific drug delivery.
