Alginate: Current Use and Future Perspectives in Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Over the last decades, alginates, natural multifunctional polymers, have increasingly drawn attention as attractive compounds in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields due to their unique physicochemical properties and versatile biological activities. The focus of the paper is to describe biological and pharmacological activity of alginates and to discuss the present use and future possibilities of alginates as a tool in drug formulation. The recent technological advancements with using alginates, issues related to alginates suitability as matrix for three-dimensional tissue cultures, adjuvants of antibiotics, and antiviral agents in cell transplantation in diabetes or neurodegenerative diseases treatment, and an update on the antimicrobial and antiviral therapy of the alginate based drugs are also highlighted.

A review of extractions of seaweed hydrocolloids: Properties and applications

“…Typically, by rising guluronic acid (G) content or molecular weight, more the stronger and brittle and the alginate gels may be achieved. Inversely, more flexible gels may form due to the high amount of alginate-M blocks [29,30]. Some studies also reported that the presence of homopolymeric block structure, namely mannuronic acid blocks (FMM), guluronic acid blocks (FGG) and alternating blocks (FMG) can influence gelling properties of alginate too [31].…”

“…Studies reviewed that, combination of modified citrus pectin (MCP)/alginate can reduce average of 74% of toxic heavy metals in the body without any side effects [38]. Recently, alginate oligosaccharides, a low molecular polymer fragments obtained by enzymatic depolymerization and acid hydrolysis, have received much attention and are widely reported due to their unique pharmaceutical properties such as antioxidant, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activities [30].…”

Marine Alginate Oligosaccharides – A Promising Biomaterial: Current Use and Future Perspectives in Food Industry and Pharmaceutical Applications

“…Several alginates have been applied in the food industry, which mainly are sodium alginate (SA), potassium alginate (PA), ammonium alginate (AA) and propylene glycol alginate (PGA) [33]. Several examples of the application of alginate and its derived have been shown in Table 3 [34]. Specifically, SA is used to gel in the presence of calcium, as a shear-thinning thickener in the absence of calcium, to stabilize emulsions or foams and to form films.…”

“…On the other hands, in modernist cuisine, SA is often combined with calcium salts as a good mouth-feel [35]. [34] According to Rastall (2010), oligosaccharides are recently attracting increasing interest as prebiotic functional food ingredients [36]. Functional oligosaccharides have been regarded as a keen constituent in prebiotics such as sweeteners, fiber, humectants, etc.…”

Controlled Release of 5‐Fluorouracil from Alginate Hydrogels by Cold HMDSO−Plasma Surface Engineering

“…Fabrication of interpenetrating polymeric network hydrogels comprising a natural and a synthetic polymer have invited attention of researchers lately. In this context, alginate (Figure b), a natural polymer primarily isolated from brown seaweed and endowed with inimitable features such as biocompatibility, pH‐sensitivity, relative ease of fabrication of formulations and high biodegradability finds extensive applications in biomedicine . On the other hand, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) (Figure c) is a synthetic polymer that has been widely employed in biomedical applications .…”