Food Gum based Hydrogel Polymers

Abstract

Food gum, a kind of very important and unique food additive, has many important functions on food applications. In addition, they are also applied on non-food industries such as cosmetics, coating, photosensitive resin, fertilizer, casting, tobacco and pharmaceutical industries, due to their great structural versatility, high water-affinity. Among these non-food applications, synthesis hydrogel polymers have been widely concerned due to their widespread applications in pharmaceutical and medical areas, e.g., as delivery vehicles for drugs, cells, genes, or proteins, and as scaffolds for tissue engineering. In this review, we summarized the food gum based hydrogel polymers such as gum ghatti based hydrogels, tragacanth gum based hydrogels, salecan gum based hydrogels, pectin based hydrogels, and guar gum based hydrogels. Based on the literatures reviewed, it is concluded that various food gum based hydrogels can be exploited as potential applications on medical areas, tissue engineering, and environment.