Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology

Colon targeted dosage forms are specific and more effective for the treatment of colon diseases. In recent years, polysaccharides have gained lot of consideration in the domain of drug delivery by the researchers because of their excellent benefits. These are considered to be the best materials for the design of targeted dosage forms; they are stable, non-toxic, and hydrophilic in nature and are degraded by enzymatic activity in the colon and they are intact while passing through the upper GIT. This property can be explored for targeting the drugs to the colon using polysaccharides. Though the large numbers of polymers are available, sometimes they fail to fulfil the demand because of limitations; hence they have to be modified. Slow replacement of natural polymers with modified natural polymers can be effective for drug targeting. There are many ways to modify the polymer properties viz., blending, grafting, and curing. Grafting advances the properties of polysaccharides and makes them an ideal vehicle for drug delivery application. This review addresses different graft polysaccharides used in targeting drugs to colon.