Lignin and its composites for drug delivery applications in Lignin-Based Biomaterials

As a natural polyphenol present in useful quantities in a variety of renewable resources that is extracted via traditional and novel biorefinery concepts, lignin offers characteristics that are potentially interesting for applications in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. With respect to these applications that currently predominantly comprise drug delivery concepts, available lignins confer different structural and physical–chemical features to the realised drug delivery vehicles and/or matrices, such as chemical and mechanical stability profiles, release kinetics of encapsulated or entrapped or adsorbed actives, and toxicology profiles. This chapter will briefly discuss the essential criteria for relevant drug delivery vehicles, highlight the structural features of various lignins that have been used for realising pharmaceutical and biomedical applications, and disclose in a critical discussion real potential and neglected difficulties in terms of toxicology and regulatory aspects.