Advances in Pharmaceutical Technology

Since ancient times the mankind has been using natural herbal remedies in crude form for curing illnesses. Naturally, the common route of drug administration has been per oral for common diseases and topical for wounds and superficial problems.Along the course of time various other routes of drug administration came into practice. Today, even very specialized routes are being used e.g., intra cardiac injection and sublingual tablets. Despite all the development and growth in this field, the oral route continues to be the preferable route of drug administration by patients as well as physicians and hence the tablet remains the most popular marketed dosage form, the reason being the ease of administration without the use of any specialized equipment or personnel.Controlled release oral products have attracted the attention of formulation scientists over the last three decades due to an array of advantages they offer.Natural polymers include guar gum, xanthan gum, locust been gum, starch, chitin, cellulosic materials, cellulose derivatives and a number of other materials have been investigated and used as drug release rate modifiers in various types of controlled release oral dosage