scleroglucan a versatile polysaccharide for modified drug deliveryscleroglucan修改药物输送的多才多艺的多糖.pdfVIP

Molecules 2005, 10, 6-33 molecules ISSN 1420-3049 Scleroglucan: A Versatile Polysaccharide for Modified Drug Delivery 1 2 3 1 Tommasina Coviello *, Antonio Palleschi , Mario Grassi , Pietro Matricardi , Gianfranco 2 1 Bocchinfuso and Franco Alhaique 1 Department of Chemistry and Technology of Biologically Active Compounds, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, P.le Aldo Moro, 00185 Rome, Italy 2 Department of Sciences and Chemical Technologies, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via de la Ricerca Scientifica, 00133 Rome, Italy 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Environment and Raw Materials, University of Trieste, P.le Europa 1, 34127 Trieste, Italy * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; e-mail: tommasina.coviello@uniroma1.it. Received: 14 May 2004 / Accepted: 8 July 2004 / Published: 31 January 2005 Abstract: Scleroglucan is a natural polysaccharide, produced by fungi of the genus Sclerotium, that has been extensively studied for various commercial applications (secondary oil recovery, ceramic glazes, food, paints, etc.) and also shows several interesting pharmacological properties. This review focuses its attention on the use of scleroglucan, and some derivatives, in the field of pharmaceutics and in particular for the formulation of modified-release dosage forms. The reported investigations refer mainly to the following to