A comprehensive Textbook on Medicated Chewing Gums

The drug's bitter taste and poor palatability make oral drug administration a daunting task. But, taste-masked medicated chewing gum provides an elegant and palatable way of administrating drugs and nutritional supplements to children and older people. Medicated chewing gum (MCG) is a mix of natural or artificial resins with the active component, plasticizer, softeners, and sweetening or flavoring agents. The released drug can be absorbed via buccal mucosa or may reach the stomach for systemic effect. Medicated chewing gum has been exploited for various applications like dental caries, smoking cessation, analgesic, anti-emetic, obesity, diabetes, fungal infection, pain killer, etc. The medicated chewing gum can be formulated by three methods: the conventional melting method, the cooling-grinding method, and the direct compression method. The active ingredient release can be made sustained or modified using various techniques such as cyclodextrin- complexation, microencapsulation, ion exchange resin, buffering agents, etc. This manuscript provides a gestalt of recent patents and novel applications related to MCGs.