| Summary: | Quest is on for finding a novel drug delivery system that can overcome all the barriers the ocular tissues and to achieve a successful delivery of drug to the posterior structures of the human eye. We all know that majority of drug administration for any eye ailments are through topical solution or suspensions. Various viscous as well as synthetic polymers have been tried for quite some decade for having a good and sustained drug delivery to eye. Recent interests and technological innovations by using nanotechnology show promising revolutions in ocular drug delivery in days to come. Current research has been directed towards the use of naturally occurring polymers in a particular nanoparticulate system. Many studies have been conducted by using various naturally occurring mucoadhesive polymers. There are two broad classes of mucoadhesive polymers: hydrophilicpolymer and hydrogels. In the large classes of hydrophilic polymers those containing carboxylic group exhibit the best mucoadhesive properties, poly vinylpyrrolidone (PVP), Methyl cellulose (MC), Sodium carboxy methylcellulose (SCMC) Hydroxy propyl cellulose (HPC) and other cellulose derivative. Hyrogels are the class of polymeric biomaterial that exhibit the basic characteristics of an hydrogels to swell by absorbing water interacting by means of adhesion with the mucus that covers epithelia The naturally occurring polymers extracted from Tamarind seed are found to be more promising and many researchers are studying their uses in ocular drug delivery. Seeds of the tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica) contain a xyloglucan, which is a gel forming polysaccharide having mucoadhesive properties. Although tamarind xyloglucan itself does not form a gel, gel can be obtained under appropriate conditions, such as by adding some substances or removing substituent. © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2010.
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