Phytosomes and Herbosomes: A Vesicular Drug Delivery System for Improving the Bioavailability of Natural Products
Sudarshan Singh, Yogesh V. Ushir, Bhupendra G. Prajapati
Abstract
Natural products and secondary metabolites have been significantly investigated and clinically tested for the treatment of various diseases in humans; however, their applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries are limited due to low aqueous solubility and stability issues. Phytosomes are lipid-compatible molecular complexes that can be successfully implemented to improve or enhance the biopharmaceutical properties such as solubility, permeability, and bioavailability of phytoconstituent. The development of enhanced drug delivery systems for delivering active pharmaceuticals with unwanted properties that produce side effects has gained significant interest among researchers and scientists. Carrier-based drug delivery systems are fabricated with the principal objective of enhancing the bioavailability of poorly water-soluble active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Bioactive-phospholipid complexes are formed by developing an interfaces linkage between bioactive and the polar head of phospholipid, enabling phospholipid complexes to be an integral part in which the lipid head group is anchored, but the two fatty acid chains do not participate in complex formation.