In recent years, there have been extensive developments associated with the
application of natural, derivatized and semi-synthetic biopolymers for the localized and
prolonged delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients at the mucosal interface. Naturallyderived
gums and mucilages are biomacromolecular assemblies employed for traditional
(films and tablets) as well as advanced (nanomedicine and conjugated systems) bioactive
delivery paradigms. These natural biomaterials are stable, easily available, economical, non
toxic and associated with less regulatory issues as compared to their synthetic counterpart.
Additionally, these biopolymers could be easily tailored via graft-polymerization,
functionalization, conjugation, and polyelectrolyte formation in order to render specific
properties such as mucoadhesivity. In this chapter, gums and mucilages along with their
modified derivatives have been discussed accompanied by gums- and mucilages-derived
mucoadhesive drug delivery systems. Additionally, the mechanistic phenomena dictating
their mucoadhesive performance will be described with special reference to the constituent
functional groups and their role in muco-tethering and -penetration. A representative list of
gums and mucilages include, but not limited to, alginic acid, agar, carrageenans, and
laminarin (marine origin); gum arabic, gum karaya, locust bean gum, gum ghatti, khaya
gum, tragacanth, albizia gum, guar gum, starch, cellulose, larch gum and pectin (plant
origin); and curdian, pullulan, xanthan, dextran, zanflo, emulsan, Baker’s yeast glycan,
lentinan, schizophyllan, scleroglucan and krestin (microbial origin).
Keywords: Gums, mucilages, biopolymers, mucoadhesion, drug delivery
systems, Kondagogu Gellan gum, Tamarind seed polysaccharide, Psyllium
mucilage, Linum (linseed) mucilage