Abstract
Abstract Natural products have been used as herbal medicines throughout human history. Moreover, from ancient to modern history, many traditional plant-based medicines are playing an important role in health care. Nowadays, approximately one-third of the top-selling pharmaceuticals are natural compounds or their derivatives. Plant-derived compounds have shown potential as therapeutic agents against cancer, microbial infection, inflammation, and other diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Natural compounds as dietary constituents are being explored for their preventive properties for chronic and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and other conditions. However, their success in clinical trials has been less impressive, partly due to the compounds’ low bioavailability. Therefore, to overcome these disadvantages, natural product-based nanoformulations are being considered in recent times. Nanoformulations of natural products could have promising results in their uptake by the epithelial system, as well as enhanced delivery to the target site. The incorporation of phytochemicals and natural products into a delivery system like nanoparticles would be a major advance in the efforts to increase their therapeutic effects. Recently, advances have been made showing that nanoparticles can significantly increase the bioavailability of natural products, both in vitro and in vivo. Nanotechnology has demonstrated its capability to manipulate particles in order to target specific areas of the body and control the release of drugs. There are many benefits to applying nanotechnology for better delivery and drug targeting of natural products. Natural compound-based nanomedicine can become a growing field that will be a driving force for future discoveries in biomedicine, especially anticancer therapies. This chapter aims to summarize the recent progress in several key sectors that are relevant to natural products in nanoparticle delivery systems for biomedical applications and anticancer therapies.
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