Abstract

A REVIEW ON HYDROGEL AS DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM

Ravi Jadhav*

Abstract

Hydrogel is a network of polymer chains that are water-insoluble, sometimes found as a colloidal gel in which water is the dispersion medium. Hydrogels are cross linked polymer networks that absorb substantial amounts of aqueous solutions. Due to their high water content, these gels resemble natural living tissue more than any other type of synthetic biomaterial. Several techniques have been reported for the synthesis of hydrogels like co polymerization/cross linking of co-monomers using multifunctional co-monomer, which acts as cross linking agent. Chemical initiator initiates the polymerization reaction. Some applications are used of hydrogels in human body. Some environmental variables, such as low pH and elevated temperatures, are found in the body. For this reason, either pH-sensitive and/or temperature sensitive hydrogels can be used for site-specific controlled drug delivery. Hydrogels that are responsive to specific molecules, such as glucose or antigens, can be used as biosensors as well as drug delivery systems. New synthetic methods have been used to prepare homo- and co-polymeric hydrogels for a wide range of drugs, peptides, and protein delivery applications. The aim of this article is to present a concise review on the applications of hydrogels in the pharmaceutical field, hydrogel properties, and method of preparation of hydrogel, advantages and disadvantages of hydrogel.

Keywords: synthetic biomaterial, polymerization reaction.