Abstract

THE APPLICABILITY OF PALM TREES IN PHARMACEUTICALS AS EXCIPIENTS WITH A SPECIALEMPHASIS ON PALM SUGAR: A REVIEW.

*Saranga Shekhar Bordoloi, Tapash Chakraborty, Asha Das, Jakirul Islam, Damanbhalang Rynjah and Bitopan Baishya

Abstract

Palms like Sugar palm, palmyra palm tree, date tree, coconut palm, raphia palm, oil palm, sago palm & nypa palm fall under the family of Arecaceae, which are well known for their sweet sap from where we get sugar. Sugar from palm is generally used locally in desserts as a sweetener. Generally, this sugar is consisting of significant amount of fructose & glucose rather than only sucrose, but still, the major palm sugar content is sucrose. Sugar obtained from palm has also been seen to having less GI (Glycaemic index) value compare to cane sugar, so this sugar has great health benefits. Many Palm products including sugar, are used in pharmaceuticals as excipients. Palm has been seen to be used as binder, starch source, oil, bioethanol, gums, superdisintegrants, nanocrystalline cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, masking agent, etc. As we found that sugar is highly soluble in water, it can be used to form a solid solution with BCS-II classification drugs to increase the bioavailability of the drug as we know aqueous solubility is directly proportional to bioavailability. So, we can also use Palm sugar for this purpose.

Keywords: Palm, Palm sap, Palm sugar, Palm sugar content, Palm excipients.