Xyloglucan for drug delivery applications

Abstract The near future of drug delivery system would lie in the search for a versatile and innocuous biomaterial, based mostly on natural resources. The tamarind seed xyloglucan (XG) is a natural neutral hemicellulose (hydrophilic polysaccharide) consisting of a main chain of glucan backbone with xylose and galactose side chains. XG is gifted with distinct mucoadhesive and in situ gelling properties which rated XG as an attractive, and functional polymer for numerous drug delivery applications. On these grounds, the present chapter is designed to underline the plausible potential of XG or XG-based systems in drug delivery. The feasibility of surface tailoring, the flexibility of chemical modification, and the possibility as ligand conjugations grant XG an extraordinary attention in the scientific community. The authors are assured that the versatility of XG would meet the expectations of regulatory authorities and the XG-based products will serve the therapeutic needs of the community in the coming years, if sufficiently investigated and promising outcomes are obtained in human subjects.