Alginate graft copolymers and alginate-co-excipient physical mixture in oral drug delivery

Use of alginate graft copolymers in oral drug delivery reduces dosage form manufacture complexity with reference to mixing or coating processes. It is deemed to give constant or approximately steady weight ratio of alginate to covalently attached co-excipient in copolymers, thereby leading to controllable matrix processing and drug release. This review describes various grafting approaches and their outcome on oral drug release behaviour of alginate graft copolymeric matrices. It examines drug release modulation mechanism of alginate graft copolymers against that of co-excipients in non-grafted formulations.