1 Plant Archives Vol. 20, Supplement 1, 2020 pp. 3794-3805 e-ISSN:2581-6063 (online), ISSN:0972-5210 REVIEW ARTICLE MORINGA GUM: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW ON ITS PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES Sonika, Sonia Dhiman, Thakur Gurjeet Singh*, Govind Arora and Sandeep Arora Chitkara College of Pharmacy, Chitkara University, Punjab, India *Author for correspondence: Thakur Gurjeet Singh Chitkara College of Pharmacy, Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab, India E-mail: gurjeet.singh@chitkara.edu.in; gurjeetthakur@gmail.com Abstract Naturally occurring polymers are presently of major importance among that polysaccharides occupy larger position due to their easy use, eco- friendly and non-toxic nature. Gums are naturally occurring constituents in plants, which are basically cheap and abundant. The development of delivery systems using natural polymers such as, gums offers different advantages, such as, biocompatibility, biodegradability and cost efficiency. The modifiers of drug release in pharmaceutical dosage forms require diverse uses as thickeners, emulsifiers, viscosities and sweeteners etc. It should be compatible, non-toxic, stable, commercial, when it affects the drug release. The gum deed as virtuous mucoadhesive polymer, disintegrating agent and binder. For manufacturing applications the gum illustrate great potential mainly in nutrients, knits and therapeutic trades. To modify the physicochemical properties the need of the gum is amended. Few resins in their putative forms are well functioned as drug release modernizers in dosage forms owed toward their excessive swelling index /solubility at acidic pH. This appraisal is expected to provide the indication about the amendment of gums through derivatization of functional groups, grafting with polymers and cross-linking with ions. Hence, gums need to be modified to change their physicochemical properties. Keywords: Moringa gum; Physicochemical properties; Functional properties; Mucoadhesive polymer; Disintegrating agent. Introduction In the development of new preparations the natural occurring and modified gums are mostly used. The additives which are used in the advancement of pharmaceutical dosage forms are gum acacia, tragacanth, agar, starch, etc (Patil et al., 2011). The selection of the origin of natural excipient is based upon the synthetic and semi-synthetic ones. This is mainly due to the lack of toxicity, low price, calming action, accessibility and non-irritant nature of the excipients (Deogade et al., 2012). These polysaccharides are obtained from natural origin which is capable to increase in a solution’s viscosity. It has various other advantages and applications like as thickening agents, gelling agents, emulsifiers, stabilizers (Choudhary et al., 2014), etc. Moreover, certain industrial applications which include its use as adhesives, binding agents, crystal inhibitors, encapsulating agents, clarifying agents and as foam stabilizers. The gums procured from herbal resources are now used in many newly developed drug delivery systems which in turn results in better stability and processing. Examples of such delivery systems are like microspheres, Nano spheres, nanoparticles, liposomes, hydrogels, Aquasomes, etc. Also, by altering the chemical entity by use of reagents or by enzymes help in promoting the better characteristics of the delivery system. However, uses of naturally procured gums are much more advantageous than chemically modified/ synthesized gums. Natural gums are easy to obtain and are non-toxic in nature, less expensive than synthetically modified gums. Oral delivery systems are more supporting while formulating delivery systems via use of natural gums. In food industry, these natural gums are usually implemented as food additives and as drug molecule carrier in case of delivery systems. Many types of higher plants under stressed conditions like drought, cell wall lysis, formation of gummosis, leads to release of a gum which in turn is the metabolic output of their pathological changes (Bhosale et al., 2014). Herbal gums are emerged as major multi-disciplinary and extensive research application with a broad variety of bioactive molecules which includes insecticides, pesticides, etc. Newly developed natural gums are used as biodegradable and biocompatible, and if it is not converted into biodegradable then they are incorporated with biodegradable component. The major advantages of gum based drug delivery systems includes as: The enhanced drug utilization has the superior selectivity in targeting of drug with a pharmacological activity. It improves the patient compliance and prevents the overloading of drugs which is due to the decrease in toxicity. Some recently investigated natural gums are as follows: 1. Abelmoschus Gum: The okra gum (also known as Abelmoschus gum) which is found from the fresh fruits of the plant Abelmoschus esculentus (family Malvaceae). In this polymer the tablets are prepared by using the gum mucilage and HPMC E15 and also used for the expansion of a gastric dosage form. It was seen that the formulation also containing gum mucilage which has a poor floating capacity but it also showed a sustained release action. However, the formulation containing polymer (HPMC) had better floating properties but has a poor sustained release effect of the drug (Chodavarapu et al., 2011). The aim of this study was to determine the extracted gum of Abelmoschus esculentus by using ultrasonic method. The okra fruit gum has wide application in medicine and health care (Nagpal et al., 2017) and which is acquired after the lyophilization and it is further determined by Tapped density, Bulk density, Car’s index, Angle of repose, Hausner’s ratio. 2. Albizia Gum Albizia gum is found from the incised trunk of the tree Albizia zygia (Family- Leguminosae). It comprises of β -1-3-