**1. Introduction**

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The success of any implant depends so much on the biomaterial used. Naturally derived biomaterials have been demonstrated to show several advantages compared to synthetic biomaterials. These are biocompatibility, biodegradability and remodeling. Therefore, these biomaterials are usually applied in the repair or replacement of damaged human tissues and organs. The aim of this chapter is to provide a brief knowledge of naturally derived biomate‐ rials as well as methods of preparation and application of them.

Biomaterials can be classified into two main groups: synthetic and natural biomaterials. Synthetic biomaterials are classified as: metals, ceramics, nonbiodegradable polymers, biodegradable polymers… Some synthetic biomaterials are commercialized and applied in clinical treatment such as metal hip, Dacron, plastic intraocular lens… However, synthetic biomaterials have some disadvantages, including their structure and composition is not similar to native tissues/organs, their biocompatibility and their ability to induce tissue remodeling are low. Thus, other biomaterials have been developed that can overcome the disadvantages of synthetic biomaterials. Today, naturally derived biomaterials have been attracting scientist's interest all over the world. Naturally derived biomaterial can be classified into many groups including protein-based biomaterials (collagen, gelatin, silk…), polysaccharide-based bioma‐ terials (cellulose, chitin/chitosan, glucose…) and decellularized tissue-derived biomaterials (decellularized heart valves, blood vessels, liver…). Protein and polysaccharide-based biomaterials can be prepared by two distinct ways. Protein and polysaccharide from living organisms are dissolved by solvents or enzymes. Then, they are precipitated and reconstituted into fibrils. The second way to prepare protein and polysaccharide is removing other elements of living organisms by solvents or enzymes. Decellularized biomaterials are created by

© 2013 Ha et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2013 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

eliminating all cells from native tissues/organs. Physical, chemical and enzymatic approaches are combined to make the effective decellularization protocol.

Because of their advantages, naturally derived biomaterials are usually applied to replace or restore structure and function of damaged tissues/organs. They have ability to adequately support cell adhesion, migration, proliferation and differentiation. In particular, when implanted into a defective area, naturally derived biomaterials can enhance the attachment and migration of cells from the surrounding environment, therefore, induce extracellular matrix formation and promote tissue repair. Some biomaterials are used to acting as drug delivery system and medical devices such as surgical sutures. The silk fiber produced by silkworm or spider has been used as a surgical suture for a long time due to its biodegradable and non-antigenic protein. These silk fibroin nanoparticles are the globules with a fine crystallinity that may offer various possibilities for surface modification and covalent drug attachment. Furthermore, some biomaterials are used to produce environmental friendliness of packaging (such as resorbable chitosan packing) and other products. Some commercial products were made from naturally derived biomaterial such as SIS, Matrigel, Alloderm… In this chapter, we focus on a brief knowledge as well as the methods of preparation and application of naturally derived biomaterials in our researches.
