NATURAL PLANT GUM EXUDATES AND MUCILAGE : PHARMACEUTICAL UPDATES

This review paper highlights the multiple applications of natural plant gum exudates and mucilages in the field of food, cosmetics, textile, paint, paper making, gelling, thickening, emulsifying, suspending, bio-adhesive, biomedical-drug delivery and pharmaceutical industries. India is the first and leading country in the world which has successfully completed the vaccination of 1 billion people against SARS-CoV-2. Two dose vaccine with Indian traditional Ayurvedic herbal medicine treatment has protected many people and reduced the hospitalization. One such example is Okra gum (Bhindi) (Abelmoschus esculentus), Acacia gum (Acacia nilotica), Tamrind gum (Tamarindus indica), Mango gum (Mangifera indica) and Cashew gum (Anacardium occidentale) were used as a immunity booster and herbal remedy for throat infections, cough, common cold during the recent outbreak of Covid-19 in India. The use of natural gums as pharmaceutical excipients is very attractive because they are economical, abundant, non-toxic, capable of chemical modifications, potentially bio-degradable and biocompatible. There are many health related issues with synthetic polymers in pharmaceutical industries. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop other natural plant based sources as the modifying formulation of novel drug and other delivery systems. Hence the use of natural gums and their modifications aimed at the development of better biomedical materials for drug delivery has opened up a new ray of hope in solving the current drug delivery issues. A new type of polymeric material explored for pharmaceutical applications is modified plant-based gums and mucilage's, which have extended the scope of gums in the production of formulations.