Natural polymers have been utilized extensively in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, textiles, oil drilling and paint industries. Their non-toxic and inexpensive attributes readily enhance their commercial acceptability and make them potent agents in lieu of synthetic polymers. This book explores the opportunistic utility of natural polymers in developing effective drug delivery systems and provides a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of their source, chemical structure and mechanism of action. Covering novel polymers for drug delivery - in particular extracts from plants, microorganisms and proteins, as well as water soluble and water insoluble biodegradable polymers - it presents an encyclopaedic overview of natural polymers': - quintessential roles in binding drugs towards enhancing bioavailability - modification and derivatization for targeted delivery - role as active drugs Natural Polymers for Drug Delivery is an invaluable resource for researchers, students and industrial scientists in the fields of biochemistry, chemistry, pharmacology and food science.

Over the last few years, the cancer has emerged as a leading cause of death. Therefore, all the biomedical students, pharmaceutical companies and reseachers aimed at discovering the drugs which will be more potent and efficacious for the traetment of cancer. In view of above we have considered Noscapine which has been discovered as a safe antitussive agents and binds to tubulin, arrests divinding cells in mitosis and induces apoptosis. This book, therefore, provides an insight regarding the importance of noscapine in cancer studies. We have also provided the information regarding the synthesis, pharmacokinetics and cytotoxicity studies of the analogs of the noscapine.The conclusion from our studies should be especially useful to the professionals in pharmaceutical sciences, biomedical sciences and anyone else who is doing research in the field of noscapine in cancer treatment.