PHYTO-PHOSPHOLIPID COMPLEXES (PHYTOSOMES): A NOVEL APPROACH TO IMPROVE THE BIOAVAILABILITY OF ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS

Abstract

The primary objective of any pharmacotherapeutics approach entirely lies with the effectiveness of the rationally designed delivery system to effectually deliver the suitable drug at the appropriate concentration at the proper site. Phytopharmaceuticals are healing the world from millions and billions of years even though their clinical validation is questioned by virtue of their impediments like low lipid solubility, poor stability, large size moiety and needless metabolism in gut. A strategy of using phyto-phospholipid complexes represents a promising approach to increase the oral bioavailability of active constituents, which is consist of label-friendly phospholipids and active constituents. Hydrogen bond interactions between active constituents and phospholipids enable phospholipid complexes as an integral part. The term „phyto‟ means plant while „some‟ means cell-like. Phytosome is a novel emerging technique applied to phyto-pharmaceutical which contains phytoconstituents of herbal extract surrounds and bound by lipid. Most of bioactive constituents of phyto-medicine are water soluble compounds like flavonoids. Because of water solubility and lipophilic outer layer, phytosome shows better absorption, hence produces better bioavailability, reduction in the clearance rate, providing higher dissolution and amplification of solubility by several folds of various natural products than the conventional herbal extracts. Phytosomes can be used to treat acute and chronic liver failure and therapeutically used as dietary supplements due to improved pharmacological and pharmacokinetic property. In market, many products based on phytosome technology are available which include herbal extracts and phytochemicals with great therapeutic potential such as curcumin, ginkgo biloba, grape seed, silymarin, and many more. The present review highlights the method of preparation, properties, advantages, characterization, applications and highlights key findings of recent research work conducted on phytosomes with our own viewpoints which can give the new directions and advancements to herbal dosage forms and the technical aspects of phyto-phospholipid formulations to face the future challenges.