- Email: [email protected]
Biopolymeric controlled release systems, volumes II
Journal of Controlled Release, 3 (1986) 211-215 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.. Amsterdam - Printed
BOOK
211 in The Netherlands
REVIEWS
D.L. Wise (Ed.), ~io~oly~eric Controlled Release Systems, Volumes I and II, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1984; Vol. I, 232 pages, $80 ($92, export); Vol. II, 246 pages, $88 ($102, export). If you decide to purchase the new, twovolume effort of Dr. D. Wise of Dynatech R/D Company as an introductory, overviewtype of book on controlled release, or as an alternative to the books of A. Kydonieus (1980), S. Bruck 11983) or Y. Chien (1983) you are in for a big surprise. This book should “The Contributions of have been entitled Dynatech R/D to Controlled Release” since all but four of its twenty five chapters are coauthored by at least one Dynatech researcher and refer to work carried out at that Company. Without doubt these two volumes contain much new material never before published or difficult to obtain (reports), and they both include much practical information on a variety of conventions and unusual applications of controlled release. Thus, the reader will find studies on systems for antimalarial applications (five chapters in Vol. I), release of narcotic antagonists (two chapters in Vol. I), treatment of alcoholism (two chapters in Vol. II), treatment of schistosomiasis (one chapter in Vol. II), sustained release of herbicides (one chapter in Vol. II), and applications in fertility control (three chapters in Vol. II). Most of these chapters are in the form of final research reports with background work, experimental part, results and discussions, and very often with in uiuo or field evaluation studies. There are many figures and tables, lots of experimental results and many cited references including a large number of patents. Beyond the various chapters on applications there are six chapters on general description of controlled release and mechanisms (Chap. 1, 9, 10 of Vol. I and 8, 9, 10 of Vol.
II). These chapters are written from an industrial point of view and contain an array of empirical equations or simplistic expressions of diffusion equations, etc. (see e.g. pp. 142-155 of Vol. II which will confuse any researcher familiar with the mathematical expressions of diffusion). Finally, there are five chapters (Chap. 11-15 of Vol. II) which have very little if anything to do with controlled release (e.g., maxillofacial, orthopedic and skin-replacement applications of biomaterials). More than three quarters of the chapters deal with applications of poly(lactic acid), poly(glycolic acid) or their copolymers and the book limits the discussion to work with these polymers at Dynatech. This, of course, seriously limits the usefulness of the book, since not all erodible delivery systems use lactic or glycolic acid copolymers and not all work with these systems was carried out at Dynatech. Particularly unfortunate is the discussion of fertility control (Chap. I, Vol. II) which only describes work with cylindrical implants carried out at Dynatech and totally ignores the important work of Colin Pitt and Anton Schindler with biodegradable poly(ecaprolactone) cylindrical implants (now in clinical trials) and the equally important work of Lee Beck on biodegradable lactic/ glycolic acid microspheres (also in clinical trials). The sentence structure and quality of English of many of the chapters is unfortunately poor. Very often laboratory jargon and solecisms become disturbing, as for example in “. . .The urine was counted at Dynatech using liquid scintillation. . .” (p. 163, Vol. I), or “In vitro release from samples containing no glass wool exhibit (sic) the same parabolic dependence as samples containing a plug of glass wool” (p. 150, Vol. I), or “. . . this animal was included in calculations of mean quantities. . .” (p. 73, Vol. II). Finally, it is appropriate to comment on
212
the liberal use of certain scientific terms without consistency. For example, the title 2.a of Chapter 8 of Volume I (p. 133) describes “. , .Trial of various Catalysts in Solution Polymerization”. Yet in the third paragraph of this section it is stated that “. . .the molecular weight of the polymers obtained with these materials appears to be inversely proportional to the amount used indicating that they are initiators and not true catalysts” (the italicized words are ours). Also, there are numerous contradicting definitions of “sustained” and “controlled” release, one of D. Wise on p. 4 (Vol. I) who seems to favor the idea that controlled and zero-order release are synonymous, another by R. Reuning on p. 94 (Vol. I) who states that controlled release is a “specific programmed release pattern. . .I’, three more definitions by J. Olsen and H. Sadek on p. 195 (Vol. I) and a somewhat whimsical (and unscientific) parallelism by S. Sadek on p. 140 (Vol. II) where a sustained release matrix system is “visualized as. . .a dissolving life saver”. Although these two volumes are a useful compendium of experiments protocols and applications of lactic/glycolic acid copolymers in various controlled release applications, the book presents a very one-sided view and for this reason can be recommended only to those workers who are interested in work carried out at Dynatech.
Washington, on March 21-23, 1983. The book is divided into six parts: i. Chemistry of Adhesibn - The Importance of Interface ii. Physics of Adhesion - Characterization of Surface and Bulk of Adhesive Systems ... 111. Radiation-curable Adhesives Adhesives iv. High Temperature V. Anaerobic and Structural Adhesives vi. Trends in Adhesive Research The first five parts include all the papers presented in the Symposium, including transcripts of the discussion period. All the papers are refereed. The last part includes contributions on future trends in adhesive research. Most of the work presented is of developmental and applied nature. There is only one paper (by D. Maugis) addressing the fundamentals of adhesion. The book is a very good review of adhesive chemistry. It is well edited and it is a good reference book for those interested in the synthesis, properties and applications of various adhesives. Interested controlled release scientists may find interesting papers which (by ~omp~ison) could give them new ideas on the design of bioadhesive systems. However, there is no specific mention of bioadhesion or bioadhesive polymers. A.G. MIKOS
and N.A. PEPPAS
Purdue Uni~ler~its
N.A. PEPPAS
Purdue University J. HELLER
SRI ~~ter~at~~nal
L.-H. Lee (Ed.), Adhesive Chemistry: Development and Trends, Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1984, 868 + xii pages, $115.00. This volume contains the Proceedings of a Symposium on Recent Developments in Adhesive Chemistry, held during the American Chemical Society meeting of Seattle,
Hans-Georg Elias, Macromolecules, Vol. I, Structure and Properties; Vol. 2, Synthesis, Materials and Technology, Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1984, 1342 pages (both volumes), $65.00 (Vol. 1) and $95.00 (Vol. 2). A thorough review of the polymer book of Dr. Elias calls for a monumental effort, since critical analysis of each and every point or idea in its 1350 pages requires several weeks of reading. Thus, my very positive review of this book is based on a rather cursory reading. In the early 70s Hans-Georg Elias (now
BOOK
211 in The Netherlands
REVIEWS
D.L. Wise (Ed.), ~io~oly~eric Controlled Release Systems, Volumes I and II, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1984; Vol. I, 232 pages, $80 ($92, export); Vol. II, 246 pages, $88 ($102, export). If you decide to purchase the new, twovolume effort of Dr. D. Wise of Dynatech R/D Company as an introductory, overviewtype of book on controlled release, or as an alternative to the books of A. Kydonieus (1980), S. Bruck 11983) or Y. Chien (1983) you are in for a big surprise. This book should “The Contributions of have been entitled Dynatech R/D to Controlled Release” since all but four of its twenty five chapters are coauthored by at least one Dynatech researcher and refer to work carried out at that Company. Without doubt these two volumes contain much new material never before published or difficult to obtain (reports), and they both include much practical information on a variety of conventions and unusual applications of controlled release. Thus, the reader will find studies on systems for antimalarial applications (five chapters in Vol. I), release of narcotic antagonists (two chapters in Vol. I), treatment of alcoholism (two chapters in Vol. II), treatment of schistosomiasis (one chapter in Vol. II), sustained release of herbicides (one chapter in Vol. II), and applications in fertility control (three chapters in Vol. II). Most of these chapters are in the form of final research reports with background work, experimental part, results and discussions, and very often with in uiuo or field evaluation studies. There are many figures and tables, lots of experimental results and many cited references including a large number of patents. Beyond the various chapters on applications there are six chapters on general description of controlled release and mechanisms (Chap. 1, 9, 10 of Vol. I and 8, 9, 10 of Vol.
II). These chapters are written from an industrial point of view and contain an array of empirical equations or simplistic expressions of diffusion equations, etc. (see e.g. pp. 142-155 of Vol. II which will confuse any researcher familiar with the mathematical expressions of diffusion). Finally, there are five chapters (Chap. 11-15 of Vol. II) which have very little if anything to do with controlled release (e.g., maxillofacial, orthopedic and skin-replacement applications of biomaterials). More than three quarters of the chapters deal with applications of poly(lactic acid), poly(glycolic acid) or their copolymers and the book limits the discussion to work with these polymers at Dynatech. This, of course, seriously limits the usefulness of the book, since not all erodible delivery systems use lactic or glycolic acid copolymers and not all work with these systems was carried out at Dynatech. Particularly unfortunate is the discussion of fertility control (Chap. I, Vol. II) which only describes work with cylindrical implants carried out at Dynatech and totally ignores the important work of Colin Pitt and Anton Schindler with biodegradable poly(ecaprolactone) cylindrical implants (now in clinical trials) and the equally important work of Lee Beck on biodegradable lactic/ glycolic acid microspheres (also in clinical trials). The sentence structure and quality of English of many of the chapters is unfortunately poor. Very often laboratory jargon and solecisms become disturbing, as for example in “. . .The urine was counted at Dynatech using liquid scintillation. . .” (p. 163, Vol. I), or “In vitro release from samples containing no glass wool exhibit (sic) the same parabolic dependence as samples containing a plug of glass wool” (p. 150, Vol. I), or “. . . this animal was included in calculations of mean quantities. . .” (p. 73, Vol. II). Finally, it is appropriate to comment on
212
the liberal use of certain scientific terms without consistency. For example, the title 2.a of Chapter 8 of Volume I (p. 133) describes “. , .Trial of various Catalysts in Solution Polymerization”. Yet in the third paragraph of this section it is stated that “. . .the molecular weight of the polymers obtained with these materials appears to be inversely proportional to the amount used indicating that they are initiators and not true catalysts” (the italicized words are ours). Also, there are numerous contradicting definitions of “sustained” and “controlled” release, one of D. Wise on p. 4 (Vol. I) who seems to favor the idea that controlled and zero-order release are synonymous, another by R. Reuning on p. 94 (Vol. I) who states that controlled release is a “specific programmed release pattern. . .I’, three more definitions by J. Olsen and H. Sadek on p. 195 (Vol. I) and a somewhat whimsical (and unscientific) parallelism by S. Sadek on p. 140 (Vol. II) where a sustained release matrix system is “visualized as. . .a dissolving life saver”. Although these two volumes are a useful compendium of experiments protocols and applications of lactic/glycolic acid copolymers in various controlled release applications, the book presents a very one-sided view and for this reason can be recommended only to those workers who are interested in work carried out at Dynatech.
Washington, on March 21-23, 1983. The book is divided into six parts: i. Chemistry of Adhesibn - The Importance of Interface ii. Physics of Adhesion - Characterization of Surface and Bulk of Adhesive Systems ... 111. Radiation-curable Adhesives Adhesives iv. High Temperature V. Anaerobic and Structural Adhesives vi. Trends in Adhesive Research The first five parts include all the papers presented in the Symposium, including transcripts of the discussion period. All the papers are refereed. The last part includes contributions on future trends in adhesive research. Most of the work presented is of developmental and applied nature. There is only one paper (by D. Maugis) addressing the fundamentals of adhesion. The book is a very good review of adhesive chemistry. It is well edited and it is a good reference book for those interested in the synthesis, properties and applications of various adhesives. Interested controlled release scientists may find interesting papers which (by ~omp~ison) could give them new ideas on the design of bioadhesive systems. However, there is no specific mention of bioadhesion or bioadhesive polymers. A.G. MIKOS
and N.A. PEPPAS
Purdue Uni~ler~its
N.A. PEPPAS
Purdue University J. HELLER
SRI ~~ter~at~~nal
L.-H. Lee (Ed.), Adhesive Chemistry: Development and Trends, Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1984, 868 + xii pages, $115.00. This volume contains the Proceedings of a Symposium on Recent Developments in Adhesive Chemistry, held during the American Chemical Society meeting of Seattle,
Hans-Georg Elias, Macromolecules, Vol. I, Structure and Properties; Vol. 2, Synthesis, Materials and Technology, Plenum Press, New York, NY, 1984, 1342 pages (both volumes), $65.00 (Vol. 1) and $95.00 (Vol. 2). A thorough review of the polymer book of Dr. Elias calls for a monumental effort, since critical analysis of each and every point or idea in its 1350 pages requires several weeks of reading. Thus, my very positive review of this book is based on a rather cursory reading. In the early 70s Hans-Georg Elias (now