Phytosomes - A Novel Approach for Herbal Drug Delivery

Abstract

The potential uses of large number of herbal drugs are limited due to their poor absorption and poor bioavailability after oral administration. The bioavailability can be improved by formulating an appropriate drug delivery system, which can enhance the rate and the extent of drug absorption across the lipid biomembrane. Novel drug delivery system aims to provide some control in temporal or spatial nature of the drug release in the body. The phospholipid molecular structure includes a water-soluble head and two fat-soluble tails, because of this dual solubility, the phospholipid acts as an effective emulsifier, which is also one of the chief components of the membranes in our cells. Phytosomes are advanced forms of herbal products that are absorbed and utilized in improved manner to produce better results than conventional herbal extracts. “Phytosome” is formed by complexing the polyphenolic phytoconstituents in molar ratio with Phosphatidylcholine. As far as the potential of phytosome technology is concerned, it has a great future for use in formulation technology and applications of hydrophilic plant compounds. Many areas of phytosome are to be revealed in future in the prospect of pharmaceutical application.