Biomedical Applications of Pullulan

Chapter 10 Biomedical Applications of Pullulan Sudipta Roy, Sudipta Roy Department of Pharmacology, Bengal School of Technology (A College of Pharmacy), Sugandha, Hooghly, West Bengal, IndiaSearch for more papers by this authorSwaraj Biswas, Swaraj Biswas Department of Veterinary Biochemistry, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, IndiaSearch for more papers by this authorSoumalya Chakraborty, Soumalya Chakraborty National Institute of Pharmaceuticals Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, Punjab, IndiaSearch for more papers by this authorSanjay Kumar Das, Sanjay Kumar Das Institute of Pharmacy, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, IndiaSearch for more papers by this authorRichita Mondal, Richita Mondal Department of Pharmaceutics, Jadavpur University, West Bengal, IndiaSearch for more papers by this author Sudipta Roy, Sudipta Roy Department of Pharmacology, Bengal School of Technology (A College of Pharmacy), Sugandha, Hooghly, West Bengal, IndiaSearch for more papers by this authorSwaraj Biswas, Swaraj Biswas Department of Veterinary Biochemistry, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, IndiaSearch for more papers by this authorSoumalya Chakraborty, Soumalya Chakraborty National Institute of Pharmaceuticals Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, Punjab, IndiaSearch for more papers by this authorSanjay Kumar Das, Sanjay Kumar Das Institute of Pharmacy, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal, IndiaSearch for more papers by this authorRichita Mondal, Richita Mondal Department of Pharmaceutics, Jadavpur University, West Bengal, IndiaSearch for more papers by this author Book Editor(s): Annu, Annu School of Mechanical Engineering, Yeungnam University, South KoreaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 09 April 2024 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119865452.ch10 AboutPDFPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShareShare a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Summary Pullulan is an anaerobically produced water-soluble glucan gum derived from carbohydrates and is obtained from a fungus named Aureobasidium pullulans . It was first discovered by Bauer in 1938 and was named "pullulans" by Bender in the year 1959. Pullulan can alternatively be called 1,6-linked maltotriose and is a linearly structured homopolysaccharide of glucopyranose. Pullulan possesses a GRAS status with sufficient safety profile. It has several biological advantages since it is non-toxic, non-mutagenic, biodegradable, non-carcinogenic, and hemocompatible. Due to high structural flexibility and possibility of modulating the properties of pullulan by easy chemical derivitization reactions, pullulan has attracted significant interest in biomedical science as a useful biopolymer for diverse applications including targeted drug delivery, gene delivery, tissue engineering, vaccination, medical imaging, film-forming agents, molecular chaperons, capsule coating, etc. Pullulan has been used widely in the field of pharmaceuticals due to its high solubility and inevitable biological characteristics. 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