Phytosome: An Emerging Technique for Improving Herbal Drug Delivery

Abstract

Because conventional medicine has a number of adverse side effects on the human body after continuous usage, there has been a new tendency to return to "nature" for the treatment of body disorders. Though their oral bioavailability is poor, flavonoids and other phytoactive components have a variety of nutritional, therapeutic, and preservation effects. Phytosomes are a revolutionary formulation method that addresses the issue of polar phytoconstituents' poor bioavailability while also delivering medications to targeted locations. Other advantages include reduced adverse effects, reduced dosage, improved absorption, and increased drug efficacy. To deliver the medicine to a specific site of action, novel drug delivery uses unique drug carriers such as solid-lipid nanoparticles, nano-structured lipid carriers, lipid vesicles, liposomes, phytosomes, and ethosomes. The physicochemical and pharmacological features of phytosomes, as well as their structure, are discussed in this article. The mechanism of phytosome production is also examined, as well as a variety of traditional and novel formulation approaches were also studied. The methods used to characterise and assess phytosomes provide insight into a number of methodologies that can be utilised to screen certain phytosome features. The pharmacological potential of phytosomes is compared to that of conventional and liposomal drug delivery systems. The scientific significance of a list of important phytosomes patented technologies of various commercially available herbal extracts is also examined.