Biopolymers: An Introduction and Biomedical Applications
Safar Saeed Mohammed, Amjad Mahmood Qadir
Abstract
Biopolymers are an important type of biomaterials that have many important applications in different fields of modern technology due to their important properties. One of these fields is the medical field, where biopolymers play a significant role due to their suitability for using in this field. This study reviews the academic work done in the literature on the analysis of different types of biopolymers such as chitosan, hyaluronic acid, collagen, alginates, silk fibroin, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), gelatin, and polysaccharides including cellulose, starch, pectin, elastin, and keratin. Also, the most important medical properties and their biomedical applications are presented and explained. After reading this work, we will become familiar with different types of biopolymers, and it turns out that biopolymers have many unique biomedical properties such as non-toxicity, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. Based on these properties, biomaterials have many applications in medicine, including medical delivery, tissue engineering, healing wounds, and medical imaging devices.