Gum Tragacanth (GT): A Versatile Biocompatible Material beyond Borders

Abstract

The use of naturally occurring materials in biomedicine has been increasingly attracting the researchers’ interest and, in this regard, gum tragacanth (GT) is recently showing great promise as a therapeutic substance in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. As a polysaccharide, GT can be easily extracted from the stems and branches of various species of Astragalus. This anionic polymer is known to be a biodegradable, non-allergenic, non-toxic, and non-carcinogenic material. The stability against microbial, heat and acid degradation has made GT an attractive material not only in industrial settings (e.g., food packaging) but also in biomedical approaches (e.g., drug delivery). Over time, GT has been shown to be a useful reagent in the formation and stabilization of metal nanoparticles in the context of green chemistry. With the advent of tissue engineering, GT has also been utilized for the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds applied for both hard and soft tissue healing strategies. However, more research is needed for defining GT applicability in the future of biomedical engineering. On this object, the present review aims to provide a state-of-the-art overview of GT in biomedicine and tries to open new horizons in the field based on its inherent characteristics.

Application of Response Surface Methodology for Optimizing the Therapeutic Activity of ZnO Nanoparticles Biosynthesized from Aspergillus niger

“…Green production of metal-oxide NPs utilizing biomass constituents is appealing because these methods are uncomplicated, cheap, and non-toxic compared to chemico-physical procedures [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. The current study reports the extracellular synthesis of A/ZnO-NPs via fungi.…”

Biosynthesis and characterisation of solid lipid nanoparticles and investigation of toxicity against breast cancer cell line

“…The biosynthesis of NPs offers a perspective to expand their applications in many fields like biosensing, photocatalysis, medicine, and food industries [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]. Recently, interest in natural products has grown due to their benefits and low side effects [ 30 , 31 , 32 ]. Among them, essential oils have widely been utilised in medicine as well as in pharmaceutical, food, and agronomy applications [ 33 , 34 ].…”

Effectiveness of the Natural-Based Products and Mucoadhesive for Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis Therapy: A Systematic Review

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