Starch is a polysaccharide with varying amylose-to-amylopectin ratios as a function of its biological sources. It is characterized by low shear stress resistance, poor aqueous/organic solubility and gastrointestinal digestibility which limit its ease of processing and functionality display as an oral drug delivery vehicle. Modulation of starch composition through genetic engineering primarily alters amylose-to-amylopectin ratio. Greater molecular properties changes require chemical and enzymatic modifications of starch. Acetylation reduces water solubility and enzymatic digestibility of starch. Carboxymethylation turns starch acid-insoluble and aggregative at low pHs. The summative effects are sustaining drug release in the upper gut. Acid-insoluble carboxymethylated starch can be aminated to provide an ionic character essential for hydrogel formation which further reduces its drug release. Ionic starch can coacervate with oppositely charged starch, non-starch polyelectrolyte or drug into insoluble, controlled-release complexes. Enzymatically debranched and resistant starch has a small molecular size which confers chain aggregation into a helical hydrogel network that traps the drug molecules, protecting them from biodegradation. The modified starch has been used to modulate the intestinal/colon-specific or controlled systemic delivery of oral small molecule drugs and macromolecular therapeutics. This review highlights synthesis aspects of starch and starch derivatives, and their outcomes and challenges of applications in oral drug delivery.
The photochemical synthesis of two-dimensional (2D) nanostructured from semiconductor materials is unique and challenging. We report, for the first time, the photochemical synthesis of 2D tin di/sulfide (PS-SnS₂-x, x = 0 or 1) from thioacetamide (TAA) and tin (IV) chloride in an aqueous system. The synthesized PS-SnS₂-x were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), a particle size distribution analyzer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermal analysis, UV⁻Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DR UV⁻Vis), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. In this study, the PS-SnS₂-x showed hexagonally closed-packed crystals having nanosheets morphology with the average size of 870 nm. Furthermore, the nanosheets PS-SnS₂-x demonstrated reusable photo-degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye as a water pollutant, owing to the stable electronic conducting properties with estimated bandgap (Eg) at ~2.5 eV. Importantly, the study provides a green protocol by using photochemical synthesis to produce 2D nanosheets of semiconductor materials showing photo-degradation activity under sunlight response.