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Файл:Ординатура / Хирургия / Библиотека им академика М.И. Перельмана / Книга_5445_Библиотеки_им_академика_М_И_Перельмана.pdf
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4.8.2 Nanotechnology andBiomedical Applications
Thus, inulin and its derivatives are useful in nanotechnology and biomedicine
because of their compatibility, nontoxicity, and multifunctionality. In nanotechnol-
ogy inulin is used to form the nanoparticles that are then used required to convey the
drugs involved in treatment, making the treatment operations more precise (Sharma
and Tailang 2020). These inulin-based nanoparticles can effectively encapsulate
number of drugs including anticancer agents and show improved solubility, stabil-
ity, and sustained release proles of the drugs (Peanparkdee and Iwamoto 2022). In
addition, inulin being capable of preparing hydrogels and nanocomposites renders
it possible in tissue engineering joined with regenerative medicine as inulin is sup-
portive of cell growth and tissue remodeling (Ferreira-Lazarte etal. 2020). The
functional properties of inulin are also being investigated for the new and innovative
applications such as biosensors in diagnosing certain diseases so that it could bind
with high sensitivity and specicity to specic biomolecules (Ramasamy et al.
2021; Lanjhiyana 2020). Such improvements demonstrate the use of inulin-based
nanotechnology in the biomedical area that will create new horizons in diagnostic,
therapeutic, and also tissue engineering uses.
4.8.3 Sustainability andGreen Processing
Thus, the introduction of inulin-based sustainability and green processing mar-
kets brings innovation in developing environment-friendly and effective
approaches to processing. The process of extracting inulin from sources like
chicory root has undergone enhancement so that the utilization of water and
energy is minimal and that the waste can be recycled into energy (Ramasamy
etal. 2020). It has been proven that newly developed technologies, such as ultra-
sonic and enzymatic methods, enable higher yields and faster processes, which
in turn enhance the sustainability of inulin extraction (Pankaj et al. 2015).
Moreover, inulin’s biodegradability and nontoxic nature make it an excellent
candidate for developing sustainable packaging materials and bioplastics, reduc-
ing reliance on petroleum-based plastics and decreasing plastic pollution (Sharma
2023). The integration of inulin into green processing not only supports a circu-
lar economy but also aligns with global efforts to mitigate climate change and
promote environmental stewardship (Zhang et al. 2021b; Morin-Crini et al.
2021). These advancements underscore the role of inulin in fostering sustainable
practices across various industries. Because inulin may replace substances high
in fat and sugar, it is frequently employed in the food industry. Unfortunately,
because of the numerous impurities produced by applying high temperatures, the
present commercial recovery procedure of this molecule is mostly carried out by
diffusion in hot water (70–80°C), followed by a somewhat difcult purifying
process. Food scientists have created new methods in complete accordance with
the green extraction idea based on the use of nonconventional technologies (i.e.,
pulsed electric elds, ultrasounds, microwaves, etc.) in response to the demand
B. S. R. Desu et al.
87
for more environmentally friendly, economically viable, and sustainable proce-
dures (Celińska etal. 2021).
4.9 Conclusion
Inulin has emerged as a versatile stabilizer with signicant applications across the
food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. Key ndings highlight its efcacy in
improving texture, stability, and bioavailability of various products due to its unique
physicochemical properties, including emulsication, gelation, and moisture reten-
tion. Adding it to culinary recipes can effectively stabilize the product by changing
its texture, enhancing its organoleptic properties, and extending its shelf life. Due to
its distinct structure consisting of β-(2→1) fructans, inulin has excellent emulsica-
tion, hydrogen bonding, and water-binding properties, which allow it to form micro-
gel networks. The polymer inulin is highly effective in reducing or eliminating
serum separation in reconstituted suspensions and emulsions; still, it yielded the
greatest consistency. Using inulin as a stabilizer gives food items a smoother, more
uniform texture. Furthermore, inulin’s prebiotic properties may provide health ben-
ets. With all these advantages, inulin has shown to be an excellent substitute for
stabilizing a range of compositions in the pharmacological, culinary, and cosmetic
elds. This section summarizes the present state of research on inulin’s stabilizing
properties, with a focus on the elds’ future prospects for progress and possible uses.
Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge in particular ShriRam College of Pharmacy,
Banmore, Morena, Madhya Pradesh, India, for encouraging us and providing necessary facilities.
Funding There was no funding for this project from any source.
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5
Inulin asaCoating Agent
ShwetaMishra, AdarshSahu, S.Anakha,
andMayankChoubey
Abstract
Inulin, as a unique and exible structure, has been one of the most popular bio-
degradable polymers for the development of drug delivery systems due to its
stabilization and protective effects and organ-targeting ability, including
improved bioavailability, better cellular uptake, and sustained and controlled
release of drugs and biomolecules. Inulin belongs to the fructan group of poly-
saccharides and has recently gained attention as a potential coating material,
especially in studies of colon-targeted nanosized drug delivery systems, because
of its rapid water solubility, low friability, and stability against gastric and intes-
tinal enzymes. This chapter presents a comprehensive overview of the funda-
mentals and application of inulin as a coating agent for the delivery of therapeutic
agents. Furthermore, chemical behavior, challenges, and future perspectives
related to the use of inulin coatings for drug delivery purposes are discussed here.
Keywords
Inulin · Coating · Natural polymers · Polysaccharides · Drug delivery
S. Mishra (*)
SGT College of Pharmacy, SGT University, Gurugram, Haryana, India
A. Sahu
Amity Institute of Pharmacy, Amity University Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
S. Anakha
KTN College of Pharmacy, Palakkad, Kerala, India
M. Choubey
Department of Mechanical engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology,
SGT University, Gurugram, Haryana, India
92
5.1 Introduction
Inulin is a fructan, a type of carbohydrate found primarily in plants of the Asteraceae
family. Fructans are composed of two compounds: inulin and oligofructose. Inulin
is a exible, high-molecular-weight fructan-type oligosaccharide found in diverse
array of plants. It has hydrophilic characteristics and contains dietary ber. It is
obtained from edible vegetables and fruits such as onion, garlic, leek, and banana.
Chicory (Cichorium intybus) and Jerusalem artichoke are the primary raw material
sources which is used in industrial production of inulin (Gupta etal. 2019; Mensink
etal. 2015). They are usually collected from different parts of more than 36,000
plant species, but the primary source is found to be the roots of Cichorium intybus
(chicory) (Gupta etal. 2019). Inulin is used in several industries, including food,
pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and biotechnology. With their excellent nutritional and
technological benets, they have become part of our daily food intake for centuries
(Shoaib etal. 2016). For pharmaceutical formulations, chemically modied inulin
is being investigated. Natural or hydrophobically modied inulin nanoparticles can
be synthesized by self-assembly process and used in many biological processes as
nanostructured prebiotics. On the other hand, inulin alone or in combination with
other biopolymers can be utilized as a coating material for the encapsulation of
bioactive chemicals and the development of their delivery systems. Inulin coating
may improve the physicochemical and biological properties of bioactive com-
pounds, allowing for regulated release as well as protecting the bioactive compo-
nent from adverse environmental conditions.
Inulin-coated bioactive compounds have a variety of applications in medical
elds, including immunological regulation, prebiotic action, blood sugar regulation,
lipid content regulation, anticancer activity, and antioxidant activity. It can also be
utilized as a thickener, fat replacer, water-retaining agent, and sweetener in the food
industry (Wan et al. 2020). Additionally, the non-metabolizable, nontoxic, and
freely ltered nature of inulin makes it an ideal compound for assessing the glo-
merular ltration rate (GFR). There are some drugs that lack efciency due to poor
biological and chemical stability and a lack of organ tropism, which can be cor-
rected by combining the appropriate agent with inulin (van Bekkum etal. 1994).
Furthermore, inulin was approved by the USFDA in 1992 as a safe and effective
nutritional supplement for babies, and in 2018 the agency reiterated that inulin has
increased the nutritional content of a number of functional food products (Giri
etal. 2021).
Many several studies revealed that several materials, like polysaccharides, gly-
cols, etc., have been used as coatings for liposomes due to their low or nontoxicity,
biocompatibility, and neutral organoleptic properties, while inulin is a polysaccha-
ride that can be used for the encapsulation of antioxidants and many other bioactive
molecules (Román-Aguirre etal. 2020).
When we investigate the conventional drug delivery system, which consists of
immediate-release tablets, capsules, and other formulations that deliver drugs to the
site, it has a lot of disadvantages like frequent dosing, poor patient compliance, poor
bioavailability, drug loss through rst-pass metabolism, and even gastric irritancy in
S. Mishra et al.
93
some cases (Fig.5.1). All these can be overcome by the application of a controlled
drug delivery system that delivers drugs at a specic site at a predetermined rate
(Pandey etal. 2019). Controlled-release drug delivery systems are introduced to
enhance drug therapy by assisting the drug to cross physiological barriers and
shielding the drug from premature elimination. These systems are composed of bio-
compatible materials that are sensitive to various stimuli and can release the active
molecule at the right place, among which the most productive one is polymers
(Siegel and Rathbone 2011; Aghabegi Moghanjoughi etal. 2016).
These drug delivery systems comprise mostly drug-encapsulated devices that
release the therapeutic agents at a controlled rate for a long period of time at the
specic targeted site (Aghabegi Moghanjoughi etal. 2016). Depending upon the
characteristics of the drug, a single or combination of polymers can be used that
are mixed with the specic drug, and the release of the drug slows down in the
medium through mechanisms involving diffusion, dissolution, or a combination
of diffusion- dissolution or erosion-based controlled mechanisms. These polymers
can be classied into many types based on the molecular force, source, type of
polymerization, structure, and so on. Depending on the source, it is a natural,
semisynthetic, or synthetic polymer type, all having their own advantages and
disadvantages.
The synthetic polymers, when incorporated for controlled drug delivery, had
many drawbacks, such as instability problems, expensive chemical modication,
poor receptor targeting properties, weak mechanical properties, biodegradation,
excretion, etc. One solution to tackle this issue was found to be using nontoxic and
biodegradable natural polysaccharides instead, since they have optimum receptor
targeting and stealth properties to produce better patient outcomes with minimized
side effects. Properties like molecular exibility, ability to stabilize proteins, self-
assembled structures, ease of chemical modication, and immune modulation pro-
vide uniqueness to inulin, which helps to utilize it as a drug delivery scaffold and
Fig. 5.1 Advantages of inulin-based drug delivery system
5 Inulin asaCoating Agent
94
biomaterial. The unique properties of inulin help in its exploitation for many phar-
maceutical applications (Anjuomo etal. 2021). Given the extensive research on
the various applications of inulin, it is crucial to thoroughly investigate its optimal
modication for use as both a nutrition and drug delivery system. This will pave the
way for future studies and enable us to fully harness its potential in sustainable
development (Teferra 2021).
5.2 Sources Isolation ofInulin
There are two phases involved in the production of inulin. The rst step is the
extraction phase, which is followed by a rst purication step that results in a semi-
rened syrup. The second step is the rening phase, which leads to a commercial
nal product that is signicantly pure more than 99.5%. The rst phase of the
chicory process, which is like the sugar beet process, produces commercial inulin
(Qin etal. 2023). There are several natural sources of inulin, such as chicory roots,
Jerusalem artichoke, dahlia tubers, yacon, asparagus, leek, onion, bacon, wheat,
and garlic (Zhang etal. 2022). Chicory root is the main commercial source of inu-
lin. Cichorium intybus (common name: chicory) is a perennial herbaceous plant
belonging to the Asteraceae family. Dahlia and Jerusalem artichoke are the other
important sources for the industrial production of inulin in temperate areas. The
isolation process of inulin (Redondo-Cuenca etal. 2021) is schematic represented
in Fig.5.2.
Fig. 5.2 Steps of isolation process of inulin
S. Mishra et al.
95
5.3 Chemistry ofInulin
Inulins are naturally occurring polysaccharides containing 2–60 fructose units.
They are a chemically linear polydisperse carbohydrate with β-(2-1)--fructosyl
fructose linkages between the fructose units and α-1, β-2-linked glucose molecules
as the terminal molecule (Roberfroid 2005; Schaafsma and Slavin 2015). Their rst
monomer can be either β--glucopyranosyl or β--fructopyranosyl residue
(Schaafsma and Slavin 2015). Inulin is a general chemical formula that is expressed
as C
6n
H
10n+2
O
5n+1
, where “n” indicates the number of repeating units (fructose mol-
ecules) that are present in the polymer chain. In most instances, inulins are a poly-
disperse mixture of fructan chains, with a chain length (degree of polymerization
(DP)) dispersion dependent on the source. Inulin’s fructose units and β-conguration
of anomeric carbon form β-(2-1) -fructosyl fructose bonds, making it indigestible
on the human small intestine. On the other hand, the microora of the intestinal
system makes it possible for it to ferment outside of the large intestine. Inulin-type
fructan is composed of linear (2→1)-linked β--fructosyl units connected to the
fructosyl moiety of sucrose (Judprasong etal. 2011). Chicory inulin has fructose
units ranging from 2 to 60, indicating a mix of oligomers and polymers. The DP
(degree of polymerization) and branches have an effect on the functionality of the
inulin. Plant inulins have relatively low DP (maximally <200) which depends on
plant species, climatic conditions, and the plant’s physical condition. Inulin present
in bacteria has a very high DP, ranging from 10,000 to above 100,000; furthermore,
a bacterial inulin is 15% more branched than the plant inulin.
5.4 Physicochemical Features ofInulin
As a unique food ingredient, inulin has many important health benets and also has
some useful industrial properties that make it useful in many food uses. It has been
reported that inulin is moderately water-soluble and has a 3D microcrystalline gel
network with a creamy structure that is formed at high temperatures (Schaafsma and
Slavin 2015). On removal of one monomer unit of inulin molecules, its sweetness is
decreased, and the gel-forming capabilities can be enhanced. Chicory inulin is a
white powder with small, translucent particles. The inulin has a neutral avor, and
it does not leave an aftertaste. Regular chicory inulin has a sweetness level of
approximately 10% when compared to sucrose, even though long-chain inulin is not
sweet. Inulin behaves similarly to bulking substances, and, together with high quan-
tities of articial sweeteners like aspartame and acesulfame K, it offers an excellent
tongue feel with a small after taste. Chicory inulin is considerably dissolved in
water (almost 10% at 25°C), allowing for its inclusion in an aqueous media without
precipitation. Inulin solubilizes in hot water (temperature at 50–100°C) (Roberfroid
2005). Chicory inulin solutions have a comparatively low viscosity: for a 5% solu-
tion, 1.65mPa.s at 10°C, and for a 30% solution, 100mPa.s. For hydrolysis of
inulin, some parameters such as low pH, high temperature, less dry-substance envi-
ronments, etc., are required. Furthermore, in an acidic environment, β-(2-1) bonds
5 Inulin asaCoating Agent