Abstract
It is astonishing to observe that in spite of the technical hitches encountered in natural product research, more than 50% of drug substances are natural products or inspired by natural compounds, covering a variety of therapeutic indications with a great range of chemical structures. Several latest reviews have tinted the tangible importance of natural products to the drug discovery process, being over a hundred natural product-derived compounds which are currently undergoing clinical trials [1]. Although these natural products represent a large source of potential drugs, mostly of them have limited clinical use due to chemical instability, low absorption and biodistribution, first pass metabolism, little accumulation in the organs of the body, inadequate efficacy or safety profiles [2,3]. These characteristics strongly influence the delivery of natural products using conventional dosage forms. Different strategies have been adopted to overcome these limitations, such as development of semisynthetic compounds or synthetic analogues, or the production of prodrugs but in mostly of the cases have not been satisfactory.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
