Pectin in drug delivery

Pectin shows significant potential in drug delivery. It is either used on its own or blended with other polymers to meet the desired physicochemical properties. Pectin has been used as an emulsifier to prepare nanoemulsion consisting of itraconazole, a poorly water-soluble drug [Burapapadh et al., 2010]. An increase in pectin content, especially HM pectin leads to a decrease in emulsion droplet size. HM pectin, which is constituted of a high DE, provides a good emulsification property as a high fraction of hydrophobic... 

As an exemplification, a novel system called PecSys (PS), which is a pectin based drug delivery system, is developed to gel on mucosal surfaces when applied. These systems are currently focused in their application in intranasal delivery of drugs where it plays the role of optimizing the absorption of lipophilic drugs into the circulation. The PS based systems were commonly used for the intranasal formulations constituting opioid analgesics for the rapid pain relief The lead product that uses the PS system is NasalFent, which is a fentanyl nasal spray formulation [82]. 

Macleod et al. [92] have studied the potential of pectin-chitosan-hydroxypropyl methylcellulose films for colonic drug delivery [92]. The results showed that in all cases the tablets were able to pass through the stomach and small intestine intact. The tablets started to break up once they were in the colon, due to degradation of the coat by colonic bacteria. 

Munjeri, O., Collet, J.H., and Fell, J.T., Hydrogel beads based on amidated pectins for colon-specific drug delivery Role of chitosan in modifying drug release, J. Contr. Rel., 46 273-278 (1997). 

Z. Wakerly, J. Fell, D. Attwood, and D. Parkins, Studies on amidated pectins as potential carriers in colonic drug delivery, J. Pharm. Pharmacol. 49 622-625 (1997). 

Pillay V, Fassihi R. In vitro release modulation from cross-linked pellets for site-specific drug delivery to the gastrointestinal tract. Part 2. Physicochemical characterization of calcium-alginate, calcium-pectinate and calcium-alginate-pectinate pellets. / Control Release 1999 59 243-256. 

Liu, L. S., Fishman, M. L., Hicks, K. B., Kende, M., Ruthel, G. 2006a. Pectin/Zein Beads for Potential Colon-Specific Drug Delivery Synthesis and in vitro Evaluation 13 417-423. Liu, L. S., Liu, C.-K., Finkenstadt, V. L., Jin, T. Z., Fishman, M. L., Hicks, K. B. 2006b. Pectin Films for Various Applications. Proceedings of the 35th United States - Japan Cooperative Program in Natural Resources PR31-34. 

Sutar, P.B. et ah. Development of pH sensitive polyacrylamide grafted pectin hydrogel for controlled drug delivery system. Journal of Materials Science Materials in Medicine, 2008.19(6) 2247—2253. 

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