Clay minerals such as talc, bentonit or kaolin have been used as pharmaceutical excipients for quite a long time. Recently, small size and interesting structure of their components, e.g., montmorillonite and halloysite or newly discovered imogolite, became interesting as inexpensive and environment friendly nanomaterials.
Beside their use in different branches of the industry, they seem to be promising nanocarriers also for drugs. Review article describes recent research in their utilization on the field of controlled drug release and outlines their further possible use as biocompatible materials in medicine and tissue engineering.