Colonic drug delivery systems based on natural polysaccharides and their evaluation

Natural polysaccharides are found in abundance, are inexpensive, safe and available in a variety of structures which can easily be modified chemically and biochemically. A number of natural gums and mucilages along with their chemically modified forms have been evaluated as controlled drug delivery devices. They are reported to be capable of providing the desired drug release profiles and in some cases, have shown comparable drug release properties with currently available sustained release products in the market. Colon specific drug delivery based on natural polysaccharides has highly been acclaimed in recent years. A colon specific drug delivery system should prevent drug release in the stomach as well as the small intestine. Several polysaccharides have been reported to be capable of preventing drug release in the upper GI tract while being susceptible to enzymatic degradation by colonic bacterial enzymes. A wide range of natural or modified polysaccharides has been investigated for peroral delivery of drugs to the colon. As the release of drug from these polysaccharides based systems is independent of pH and gastric emptying time these polysaccharides based systems are considered the most effective and preferable means for colonic drug delivery in terms of target specificity.