Polysaccharides carbohydrate-based applications

Bhaw-Luximon A (2011) Modified natural polysaccharides as nanoparticulate drug delivery devices. In Narain R (ed) Engineered carbohydrate-based materials for biomedical applications-polymers, surfaces, dendiimers, nanopaitieles, and hydrogels. Wiley, Hoboken... 

Sephadex. Other carbohydrate matrices such as Sephadex (based on dextran) have more uniform particle sizes. Their advantages over the celluloses include faster and more reproducible flow rates and they can be used directly without removal of fines . Sephadex, which can also be obtained in a variety of ion-exchange forms (see Table 15) consists of beads of a cross-linked dextran gel which swells in water and aqueous salt solutions. The smaller the bead size, the higher the resolution that is possible but the slower the flow rate. Typical applications of Sephadex gels are the fractionation of mixtures of polypeptides, proteins, nucleic acids, polysaccharides and for desalting solutions. 

Although there are various materials available for encapsulation and so as technologies, the challenges do exist concerning the selection of appropriate microencapsulation technique and encapsulation material. The cost consideration of materials for food applications need to be taken into account unlike the pharmaceutical industry, which can tolerate high costs. The majority of materials used for microencapsulation in the food sector are bio-based materials such as carbohydrate polymers (polysaccharides), proteins, lipids, etc. 

The presence of numerous hydroxyl groups able to react with formaldehyde makes starch-derived products suitable chemicals for formaldehyde-based resins. Research on this subject started many years ago and showed that in a number of applications it is possible to partially replace or extend urea formaldehyde, phenol formaldehyde and melamine formaldehyde resins without significantly affecting the finished product s performance. In many applications, adhesive systems based on formaldehyde resins incorporate a polysaccharide component. More than 4.5 Mio mto of formaldehyde-based resins have been produced in Western Europe alone. The use of carbohydrates allows lower consumption of oil-based resins and, consequently, reduced release of formaldehyde in the environment. 

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