Chapter 4 - Polysaccharide-based nanomaterials

Abstract

The ever-increasing interest to utilize renewable polysaccharide-based nanoparticles as biomaterials have created interest in many disciplines, including biomedicine, bioengineering, pharmacy, chemistry, and materials science. The papers published in this area are quite extensive as the diversity of these materials seeks novel applications. The use of polysaccharides in the design of nanoparticles for the protection and delivery of bioactive compounds and nutrients has acquired great importance recently due to their strong tendency to form supramolecular systems. These polymers have many advantages, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, in some cases bioactivity, and are inexpensive biopolymeric precursors such as plant materials and crustacean exoskeletons for preparing materials of choice in various industries. Many polysaccharide-based nanomaterials have been exploited for food preservation, nutraceuticals delivery, food packaging, wound healing, drug delivery, nanocosmetics, and biomedical applications. In addition, the functional groups of the polysaccharide backbone allow facile chemical modification to develop nanoparticles with diverse structures. Mainly, polysaccharide-based nanoparticles and nano-hydrogels were used for nutraceuticals delivery, drug delivery, imaging, and tissue engineering applications. Polysaccharide-based materials are valuable substrates for the creation of responsive systems owing to the reversible nature of their assembly by hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. Therefore, this chapter describes the types of carbohydrate-based nanoparticles, method of polysaccharide-based nanoparticle synthesis, and their application in drug delivery, biomedical application, food packaging, food preservation, and nutraceutical delivery. The polysaccharide-based nanoparticles have potential application in the food and biomedical industries in the coming future.