Herbal Drug Delivery Systems: From Traditional to Nanoformulations
Corresponding author: [email protected]
Abstract
Herbal drug delivery systems have attracted considerable attention because of the increasing demand for safer, affordable, and naturally sourced treatment options. Traditional herbal medicines have been used for centuries, but they often face issues such as poor solubility, low bioavailability, instability, rapid degradation, and inconsistent effectiveness. Advances in pharmaceutical sciences have led to the development of new herbal drug delivery systems that aim to address these problems and improve the clinical potential of plant-based compounds. This review focuses on the shift from traditional forms of herbal medicine, such as powders, decoctions, tinctures, and tablets, to modern nanoformulations including nanoparticles, liposomes, phytosomes, nanoemulsions, solid lipid nanoparticles, and polymeric nanocarriers. Nano-based delivery systems enhance the bioavailability and effectiveness of herbal compounds by increasing solubility, protecting active ingredients from degradation, enabling controlled release, and improving targeted delivery, thereby boosting therapeutic effectiveness, lowering toxicity, and improving patient adherence. The review also covers how nanotechnology can address standardization, quality control, and large-scale production challenges, summarizes recent advances in herbal nanomedicine for chronic diseases, and discusses regulatory, safety, scalability, and stability considerations for future research.
Author Affiliations
- 1 BRIC-National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110067, India.
- 2 Department of Pharmacy, Panipat Institute of Engineering and Technology, 70 Milestone, GT Road, Patti Kalyana, Samalkha, Panipat, Haryana 132102, India.