Recent Findings, Application and Future Direction of Natural Extracts: Mucilage

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Mucilage is a natural biopolymer found in plants. These have found diverse applications in different areas of agriculture, food, and pharmaceuticals as binders, diluents, viscosity enhancers, stabilizers, disintegrators, solubilizers, emulsifiers, granulating and thickening agents, and suspending and gelling agents. These natural polysaccharides possess a high molecular weight and have attracted attention due to their availability, low cost, and structural versatility. They have significant properties for use as green and renewable alternatives for the development of polymers for requirement-based applications. Natural mucilage has been used as such for different applications. The mucilage-developed hydrogels offer valuable properties when compared with the hydrogels of synthetic origin. Furthermore, they are biodegradable, biocompatible, and non-toxic, and simple modifications can be performed to achieve materials that can be used for a few high-end biomedical applications, viz. drug delivery, tissue engineering, and wound management. Mucilage-based hydrogels are one of the areas that can cater to the needs of the above-mentioned applications. The review has been compiled to cover the various aspects of tailoring the mucilage using physical and chemical methods for modification to prepare hydrogels. Graft polymers, co-polymers, interpenetrating, and semi-interpenetrating polymers can be developed with various properties suitable for biomedical applications. The innovations carried out in these areas and their medical applications are covered in this paper.