Abstract
Plant derived gums and mucilage have been used extensively in the pharmaceutical industry as they are nontoxic, stable, and easily available, associated with less regulatory issues as compared to their synthetic counterpart and are inexpensive. They can be easily modified to have tailor-made materials for drug delivery systems. Use of cashew gum, as the scaffold material in formulating hydrogels has been highly pursued owing to the polymer's biocompatibility, low toxicity, and biodegradability. This review focuses its discussion on the Cashew gum (bark exudate from Anacardium occidentale L) as a versatile polymer. It has several unique properties that enable it to be used as an excipient. This review describes the chemical structure, source, extraction procedure and chemical constituents. Accordingly, several investigators have identified its benefits and its vivid application as a gelling agent, polyelectrolyte complexes, viscosity enhancer, controlled delivery systems, surfactants, drying aid agent, coating agent, microencapsulation in various domains. Thus, this novel polymer can become a candidate of major interest in recent years because of its potential applications in several fields.