Research Progress of Polysaccharide - Based Hydrogel Carriers and Their Drying Method

Polysaccharide based hydrogels can be used to protect, encapsulate and transport drugs or nutrients, and thus improve the stability of drugs or nutrients. At present, hydrogels had been developed based on chitosan, alginate, cellulose and its derivatives, pectin, starch and so on, and they had been widely used. However, it was difficult to store and transport the hydrogels due to its high moisture content. Recently, in order to improve the stability, extend the storage time and reduce the transportation cost of hydrogels, the drying technology of polysaccharide-based hydrogels had become a hot research topic. The applications of polysaccharide-based hydrogels encapsulating drugs or nutrients were summarized. The effect of drying processing on polysaccharide-based hydrogels application was concluded. This paper provides theoretical support for the drying technology application of polysaccharide-based hydrogels.