Hydrogels are an emerging area of interest in medicine as well as pharmaceutics, and their physico-chemical characterization is fundamental to their practical applications. Compared with synthetic polymers, polysaccharides that are widely present in living organisms and come from renewable sources are extremely advantageous for hydrogel formation. Furthermore, polysaccharides are usually non-toxic and biocompatible and show a number of peculiar physico-chemical properties that make them suitable for a wide variety of biomedical applications. This book bridges the gap between the preparation of hydrogels and their characterization techniques. It aims to offer a valid support that can help the readers find appropriate keys to open the doors to the complex world of polysaccharide hydrogels.

About the Author

Pietro Matricardi is assistant professor at the Department of Drug Chemistry and Technologies, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy. His scientific activity is focused on the development of new polysaccharide hydrogels for drug delivery applications and on the physico-chemical characterization of hydrogels.

Franco Alhaique is professor emeritus at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", where he teaches pharmaceutical technology. His major research interests include polysaccharide hydrogels and vesicles for drug delivery. He serves on the editorial board of scientific journals and is co-editor of the Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology.

Tommasina Coviello obtained her PhD in chemistry from University of Rome "La Sapienza", where she is associate professor of pharmaceutical technology. Her research topics, which deal with the physical-chemical characterization of polysaccharides and of polymeric drug delivery systems, have been published in more than 80 papers in international journals.

Reviews

"This book unveils the secrets of polysaccharide hydrogels that make them invaluable tools in the biomedical field. It presents elegant approaches to preparing hydrogels, techniques for a very detailed characterization of polysaccharides and their hydrogels, and recent applications."
- Prof. Carmen Alvarez-Lorenzo, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain

"This book is one of the first to cover all the aspects of polysaccharide hydrogels from the basic aspects of chemistry and characterization to their biological relevance and medical applications and is a great and comprehensive answer to the first questions concerning hydrogels."
- Prof. Pierre Weiss, University of Nantes, France

"'The gel is easier to recognize than to define (Dorothy Jordan Lloyd, 1926). This book gives significant answers to this 'old' but still intriguing statement as it brings together most of the up-to-date information on the hot topic of hydrogels obtained from polysaccharides, and their preparation, characterization and application in the field of pharmaceutics."
- Prof. Gaetano Giammona, University of Palermo and The Biophysics Institute, Italy

Book Information
ISBN 9789814613613
Author Pietro Matricardi
Format Hardback
Page Count 540
Imprint Pan Stanford Publishing Pte Ltd
Publisher Pan Stanford Publishing Pte Ltd
Weight(grams) 902g