Table 1.

Polysaccharides used for drug delivery [36,37].

Polysaccharides	Sources	Physicochemical Properties	Applications and Benefits
Chitosan	Shells of crab, shrimp, and krill	Soluble in weak acids, mucoadhesive, reacts with negatively charged surfaces	Tissue regenerative medicine, pulmonary delivery, ionotropic gelation
Alginates	Marine brown algae	Water soluble, anionic coacervation with ions and polycations	pH-dependent swelling nontoxic, diffusion, erosion, in situ forming hydrogels
Cyclodextrin	Degraded starch derived from potato, corn, rice., etc.	Water soluble, nontoxic	Nanocarrier for controlled drug release, gene and drug delivery
Pullulan	Bacterial Homopolysaccharides produced from starch by Aureobasidium pullalans	Neutral polymer underivatized pullulan has high water solubility	Emulsifier sustained-release preparations
Hyaluronic acid	Vertebrate organisms	Biodegradable, bioactive, nonimmunogenic	Anti-cancer drug delivery, wound healing and skin regeneration
Dextran	Bacterial strains, cell-free supernatant	Neutral polymer, solubility depends on degree of polymerization	Colon-targeted delivery
Guar gum	Seeds of Cyamopsis tetragonoloba	Water soluble, non-ionic, galactomannan forms a thixotropic solution, stable at pH 4–10.5	Controlled release, colon-targeted release, thermoreversible
Pectin	Plant cell wall	Negatively charged molecule	In Situ gelling, sustained delivery, drug delivery in colorectal carcinoma