**2.11 Biodegradation of alginate**

In mammal's Alginate is inherently non-degradable due to lack of the alginase enzyme, which is responsible to cleave the polymer chains. To make Alginate degradable in physiological environment includes partial oxidation of alginate chains [54]. Alginate oxidized form can degrade in aqueous medium and these materials are use as drug delivery vehicle and cells for numerous uses [55]. Sodium periodate is able to oxidized Alginate. Periodate oxidation breaks the carbon-carbon bond of cis-diol group which is present in uronate residue and form an alteration in chair conformation to an open-chain adduct, which is not able to degrade alginate backbone [56]. A slight change in molecular weight of Alginate during oxidation is expected. Adjusting of molecular weight distribution of Alginate can be play a crucial role in decupling of degradation rate and mechanical properties of alginate gels. Partially oxidized alginates have been formed binary alginate gels with low and high molecular weights through either ionic or covalent cross linking [57].
