Application Potential of Natural Polysaccharides for the Synthesis of Biologically Active Nanobiocomposites (A Review)

The review presents the main results obtained at the Favorsky Irkutsk Institute of Chemistry on the use of natural galactose-containing polysaccharides, such as arabinogalactan, galactomannan, and κ-carrageenan, for the synthesis of new water-soluble aggregation-stable nanocomposites, which are various inorganic nanoparticles (noble metals, metal oxides or elemental chalcogens) stabilized by polysaccharide macromolecules. Original synthetic approaches to nanocomposites and their structural characterization by spectral and microscopic methods, including X-ray phase analysis, are considered. Experimental evidence for the pronounced biological activity of a number of nanocomposites is provided, which in turn determines the prospects for developing on their basis of products for biomedicine and agriculture.