Porous starch and its application in drug delivery systems.

Abstract

In recent years, starch has become a new potential biomaterial for pharmaceutical applications. This biopolymer has unique physicochemical and functional characteristics, as well as various advantages such as low price, relative ease of isolation in pure form from the plant source, non-toxicity, biodegradability, good biocompatibility, and interaction with living cells. Starch is currently used in pharmacy as a binder, disintegrating agent, film-forming material, raw material for production of microspheres and nanoparticles, and a component of drug delivery systems. Porous starch, which can be obtained with physical, chemical and enzymatic methods of modification, has a large specific surface area thanks to the presence of pores and channels. It has excellent adsorption capacity and can be used to enhance the dissolution rate of poorly soluble drugs or as shell material to improve the stability and water-solubility of compounds. As a component of drug delivery systems, porous starch has another advantage: it is biodegradable, so there is no need to remove it from the body after the release of the active agent.