Over the millennia, plants have represented for Humankind the main source of food, but also for prophylactic properties or to cure human and animal diseases. Presently, between 65 and 80% of populations in developing countries use medicinal plants as therapeutic remedies for their primary healthcare and in Europe and USA there is an increasing demand of botanical products. Botanicals on the market are mainly based on traditional, conventional and innovative extracts, but the number of marketed isolated constituents is also increasing. Conversely, the clinical use of many of these isolated constituents and several extracts is limited due to the need of repeated administrations or high doses because of low hydrophilicity and intrinsic dissolution rate(s), or physical/chemical instability. Other limits are low absorption, poor bioavailability, trivial penetration and accumulation in the organs of the body. Nowadays, the design and production of appropriate drug delivery systems, in particular nanosized ones, have already entered into clinical use and can offer an advanced approach to optimize the therapeutic efficacy of extracts and isolated constituents [1-4]. Novel nanoformulations (Figure 1), namely polymeric nanoparticles and lipid based-nanocarriers represent successful examplesovercoming these limitations. Emerging molecules with pleiotropic functions and several extracts have been successfully formulated in nanocarriers.
[1] Bilia AR, et al. Improving on Nature: The Role of Nanomedicine in the Development of Clinical Natural Drugs. Planta Med 2017; 83: 366-381.
[2] Bilia AR, et al . Essential oils loaded in nanosystems: a developing strategy for a successful therapeutic approach. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2014; 651593.
[3] Bilia AR, et al. Vesicles and micelles: two versatile vectors for the delivery of natural products. J Drug Deliv Sci Technol 2016 ; 32 : 241-255.
[4] Bilia AR, et al. Flavonoids loaded in nanocarriers: an opportunity to increase oral bioavailability and bioefficacy. Food Nutr Sci 2014; 5: 1212 – 1227