Alginate: Applications in the modern world

Abstract

Alginate is a natural polysaccharide extracted from the cell walls of brown algae. Thanks to its biocompatibility, biodegradability, nontoxicity, and low cost, this biopolymer is widely applicable across various fields of biomedical science and bioengineering. Alginates are used as a gelling agent in food industry. Alginate hydrogels are an appealing scaffold material because of their resemblance with natural tissues. Consequently, alginates are widely used in tissue engineering and alginate gel beads as transport vehicles in drug delivery systems. Nonetheless, alginate hydrogels are used in nanotechnology to build artificial capillary blood vessels.