Natural Polysaccharides: An Overview of their Role in the Development of Microparticles for Stomach Targeting

Development of safe and efficacious gastro-retentive dosage forms for stomach specific drug delivery have profound importance in pharmaceutical industry. Different approaches used for gastro retention are discussed with a special focus on the floating drug delivery systems. Natural polymers have great demand in drug delivery as they encompass polymers with many functional groups, wide range of molecular weights, varying chemical composition, for the most part, low toxicity and biodegradability yet high stability. Most of these polymers have been approved by many regulatory bodies all over the globe for their usage as pharmaceutical excipients; hence, their adoptability in formulation and development is hassle free. Natural polysaccharides have been investigated for drug delivery as well as biomedical applications. This review provides an overview of different stomach specific natural polymers used or currently being used specially for controlled drug delivery and the advantages of microparticles for stomach specific drug delivery including their preparation methodologies etc. The review also emphasizes a brief summary of existing challenges associated with microparticles as delivery system for targeting drugs in the stomach and alternative methods/solutions adopted to overcome the same down the years.