Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology

The aim of present work was to extract, modify and characterize tamarind gum (TG), and explore its pharmaceutical applications. TG was extracted from tamarind kernel powder and tamarind seeds, and modified to carboxymethyl tamarind gum (CMTG) by using monochloroacetic acid. TG and CMTG were evaluated for pH, solubility, viscosity, swelling and powder characteristics, and characterized by Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, solid state ¹³C-nuclear magnetic resonance (¹³C-NMR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and X-ray diffractometer. TG was successfully extracted with yield more than 50%. Extracted gum was free from impurities like proteins and fats. Carboxymethylation of TG was confirmed by ATR-FTIR, solid state ¹³C-NMR and DSC study. The result of XRD study indicates that the amorphous nature of CMTG. Functionalization of TG into carboxymethyl derivative improved physicochemical properties of TG. CMTG showed high solubility, viscosity and swelling than TG. Results of the study revealed that carboxymethyl derivative can be potentially used for development of various drug delivery systems. It can be concluded that the CMTG has great potential as an excipient in pharmaceutical industry.