Abstract
AbstractModified starch is widely used in pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences. Various modifications such as functionalization, reorganization of the structure, or depolymerization may be used to tune ionicity, hydrophilicity, mucoadhesion, susceptibility to amylolysis by α‐amylase, or porosity. These chemical, physical, or enzymatic modifications modulate and adapt the properties of starches to different usages as tablet excipients, drug carriers, transdermal patches, injectables, wound dressing materials, transient embolizants, scaffolds, and stents. Through an understanding of the starch structure, this Review aims to aid the design of new starch materials for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. The correlation between structure and properties is analyzed and various phenomena are discussed from this perspective, with particular eye toward the envisaged functionality of new starch‐based materials.
Highlights
Various modifications such as functionalization, reorganization of the actions, hydrophobic associations, and structure, or depolymerization may be used to tune ionicity, hydrophilicity, mucoadhesion, susceptibility to amylolysis by α-amylase, or porosity
Molecular conformation conducting to a specific secondary structure while the types of starch crystals are related to organization at nanoscale level
To better correlate starch structure and its functions, in this review the modifications leading to various applications are presented in four categories: 1) physical, 2) chemical, 3) enzymatical, and 4) combined modifications, and the vast usage of starch in pharmaceutical and biomedical fields is revisited from this perspective
Summary
Chemical modifications operated on starch chains can greatly impact their capacity of organization under various conformations (i.e., helices, random coils) and offer additional tools to modulate their self-assembling. Various products for pharmaceutical or biomedical applications were obtained by cross-linking, grafting of new functional groups or complexation reactions (Table 2). Interesting to note is the fact that the capacity of starch to self-assembly in helical forms differentiates completely its behavior compared to synthetic polymers. The ratio between order (expressed under various forms, i.e., presence of helices and crystals) and disorder (i.e., amorphous structures) of the system is a key element to obtain specific properties.[38]
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