Gums-Based Bionanostructures for Medical Applications

Abstract

Natural gums are well known for their widespread use in the food and pharmaceutical industries. These are non-toxic, affordable, easily available, and environmentally friendly, and diverse class of naturally occurring organic biomolecules in nature. In contrast to synthetic counterparts, the naturally occurring gum polysaccharides and their derived nanostructured materials or nanobio- composites exhibit a range of applications in the biomedical sector owing to their exceptional structures, physicochemical properties, and functionalities. Gums-based bio-nano composites have gained increasing importance for medical applications since they are edible, safe, and highly vulnerable to bio-degradation. Cell bio-imaging, drug delivery, tissue regeneration, water treatment, biosensor, biomaterials for implantation and sutures are among the most common biomedical application of gum bio-based nanomaterials and nanocomposites. Nanotechnology, the synthesis, and the use of operations at the nanoscale have fascinated scientist’s interest and extensive attention is focused on nanotechnology in recent years. Nanomaterials for different biomedical applications have gained great attention because of their unique physical and chemical properties like mechanical, thermal, optical, electrical and structural diversity. These materials have vast applications in different fields as drug delivery carriers, imaging agents, radio-sensitizers in radiation and photodynamic therapy. The nano-sized materials are obtained by different methods such as biological and chemical synthesis. The chapter elaborates on the use of noble gum-based nanomaterials and nanocomposites with particular emphasis on their application in the biomedical industry.