Delivery of drugs using tamarind gum and modified tamarind gum: A review

Tamarind seed polysaccharide is an emerging excipient, which is being used and investigated for the preparation of various dosage forms. Functionalization of tamarind gum (TG) enhances the properties of native tamarind polysaccharide like degradability, hydration, viscosity and swelling. Due to these excellent properties, researchers investigated the application of modified TG in various drug delivery systems. TG and modified TG are found to be appropriate for the designing of oral, nasal, ophthalmic, colonic and topical drug delivery systems. Moreover, they are used in the preparation of hydrogel-based drug delivery systems and novel drug delivery systems such as nanoparticles. Considering the above facts, additional research work is required to confirm the pharmaceutical uses of TG and modified TG in drug delivery. The current review deals with a comprehensive and valuable discussion on pharmaceutical applications of TG and modified TG.