Guar Gum as Natural Polymer for Drug Delivery Applications

Guar Gum a non-ionic polysaccharide extracted from the seeds of Cyamopsis tetragonolobus is found copiously in nature and is used in a variety of fields such as food and pharmaceuticals as a binding agent. Guar Gum commercially available inexpensive green polymer is used as stabilizing agents for microscopic iron particles. It is a very effective polymer for stabilization in the long run for the particles.

The Gum also attributes properties such as biosafety, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and sustainability characterizing it as a potential case to be used in drug release research and pharmaceutical formulations. Although it can be used in a limited form as a delivery carrier in its native form owing to its high swelling property in an aqueous medium, this characteristic property can be altered by cross-linking and grafting for the usage in the biomedical field.

Guar Gum Application in the Pharmaceutical Formulation is:

Nanoparticulate Drug Delivery System

Recently the nanosystem in pharmaceuticals has evolved due to the advantages this technology provides over the conventional systems. Nanotechnology covers aa array of nanosystems like nanoparticles, lipid complexes, dendrimers, nanocapsules, and polymeric micelles. Guar Gum is used in a drug delivery system in the form of nanocapsules and nanospheres formed on cross-linked guar gum to incorporate a higher amount of tamoxifen citrate for better efficiency in the system. This nanosphere technique is prepared and characterized for usage in targeted drug delivery in the treatment of breast cancer.

Colonic Drug Delivery System

The drug delivery system has gained much popularity in recent years because of its potential absorption site for peptides & proteins. Guar Gum is extensively used in the drug delivery system in the colon due to its retarding property and vulnerability to microbial segmentation in the large intestine. The studies prove that some amount of tracer on the tablet surface was found in the stomach and small intestine and the majority of the tracer was delivered to colon making it suitable for the treatment of colorectal cancer.

Oral Drug Delivery System

Oral consumption of drugs is the most convenient and commonly used route for effective drug delivery cause of the factors such as low cost, ease of administration, and flexibility for the dosages.  Guar Gum based oral drug delivery system is gaining popularity due to its natural polymer properties which swell and drug begins to move in the system by diffusion at a speed determined by nature and composition as well as formulation technology of polymer.

Transdermal Drug Delivery System

The process involves monitoring several factors such as stability, the convenience of use, rate of release, etc. carboxymethyl guar an anionic guar gum derivative is used as a supplementing agent to elevate viscosity for osteoarthritis treatments. Guar Gum and combination of several other polymers are also being used to formulate matrix tablets due to its natural hydrophilic polymer properties.

Future Prospects

Natural source of polymers such as Guar Gum is gaining popularity due to its much potential to effectively serve as an important excipient in several new drug delivery over the traditional inert excipients used for the manufacturing process of formulation systems.